Race culture; or, Race suicide? (a plea for the unborn);

CE CULTURE

OR. RACE suicide:

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Race culture; or. Race suicide? (a plea f

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RACE CULTURE;

OR, RACE SUICIDE?

(A PLEA FOR THE UNBORN)

BY

ROBERT REID RENTOUL,

DOCTOR OF MEDICINE ; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS (ENG.)/
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS (eDIN.) ; LATE
MEMBER OF THE GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATION, UNITED
kingdom; MEMBER OF THE MEDICO-LEGAL SOCIETY (LOND.);
MEMBKt OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF INEBRIETY J
HON. MEMBER OF THE MANCHESTER MEDICO-ETHICAL
ASSOCIATION ; WITNESS BEFORE THE SELECT COM-
MITTEES OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON
" DEATH CERTIFICATION," " REGISTRATION
OF MIDWIVES," AND EVIDENCE LAID
BEFORE THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON
THE CARE AND CONTROL OF
THE FEEBLE-MINDED.

[all rights reserved.]

Condon and f clUng-on-Cync :
THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO., LTD.

NEW YORK: 3 EAST 14TH STREET.
1906.

PEICB 7/6 NETT.

OTHER WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

THE CAUSES AND TREATMENT OF ABORTION. 5s.

PROPOSED STERILIZATION OF CERTAIN MENTAL
AND PHYSICAL DEGENERATES, is.

TRACHOMA. 2s.

THE UNDESIRABLE ALIEN: FROM THE MEDICAL
STANDPOINT. 6d.

MEDICAL CHARITY REFORM. 5s.

PROPOSED REGISTRATION OF STILL-BORN CHIL-
DREN. IS.

WOMAN'S HEALTH. 2s. 6d.

To be had from
CORNISH BROTHERS, 27 Lord Street, Liverpool.

gfbication.

TO

JOHN LAWRENCE AND DORCAS RENTOUL,
WITH FILIAL ADMIRATION AND RESPECT.

" As long as Almighty God shall give me life I
shall still press forwardtto my avowed end of doing
all the good I can in my calling."

—Thomas Sydenham, M.D.
{Circa A.D. 1624).

CONTENTS.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION .... vii-xiv

CHAP.

I. THE BEGETTING OF A HEALTHY RACE . . I

II. WHAT IS A DEGENERATE? — NATIONAL MUTILATORS II

III. THE PRESENT AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL DETERIORA-

TION — PROPOSED FREE MEDICAL TREATMENT

FOR ALL CITIZENS . . . -14

IV. THE PRESENT AMOUNT OF MENTAL DEGENERACY . 24
V. THE COST OF THE UPKEEP OF DETERIORANTS AND

DEGENERATES . . . . • 3^

VI. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND
DEGENERACY : OUR HEALTH-DESTROYING SYS-
TEM OF INTERMARRIAGE WITH, AND INTER-
BREEDING FROM LUNATICS . . . 40
VII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND
DEGENERACY : OUR DISGUSTING SYSTEM OF
INTERMARRIAGE WITH, AND INTERBREEDING
FROM IDIOTS, IMBECILES, EPILEPTICS, AND

FEEBLE - MINDED " MENTALLY BACKWARD

CHILDREN'' — CAUSES OF IDIOCY . . 42

VIII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND

DEGENERACY : CHILD-MARRIAGES . -53

IX. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND

DEGENERACY: WE FORBID THE HEALTHY TO n'
MARRY . . . ; -58

X. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND

DEGENERACY : WE COMPEL THE DISEASED
OR "unfit" TO MARRY — PROPOSED PRE-
NUPTIAL HEALTH CERTIFICATE — ABOLITION
OF BREACHES OF PROMISE TO MARRY . 6 1

XI. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND

DEGENERACY : WE RELEASE ASYLUM PATIENTS
AS "recovered" when not RECOVERED —
IS INSANITY CURABLE? . . -72

VI CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE

xii. some causes of national deterioration and
degeneracy: overwork of the young

BRAIN . . . . -7^

XIII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND

DEGENERACY : UNSUITABLE EMPLOYMENT FOR
WOMEN AND CHILDREN . . • ^5

XIV. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND

DEGENERACY : THE ABUSE OF ALCOHOL . 93

XV. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND
DEGENERACY : UNDESIRABLE ALIEN IMMI-
GRANTS, AND EMIGRATION OF OUR "FIT" . lOI

XVI. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND
DEGENERACY : THE USE OF ABORTION
DRUGS, ETC. . . . .105

XVIL SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND

DEGENERACY : VENEREAL DISEASES . . Io8

XVIII. SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND

DEGENERACY: SEXUAL EXCESS . .124

XIX. HOW SOME COUNTRIES FORBID THE MARRIAGE

OF DETERIORANTS AND DEGENERATES . I32

XX. PROPOSED STERILIZATION OF CERTAIN MENTAL

DEGENERATES AND PHYSICAL DETERIORANTS . I44

XXI. HAS MY PROPOSAL TO STERILIZE CERTAIN DE-
TERIORANTS AND DEGENERATES SECURED
SUPPORT? . . . . .164

XXII. PROPOSALS MADE BY OTHERS WITH THE VIEW
OF LESSENING THE NUMBER OF DEGENE-
RATES ..... 170

INTRODUCTION.

Not a pleasant subject to write upon.

This work is a second and enlarged edition of Proposed
Sterilization of Certain Mental and Physical Degenerates,
which I published in 1903. In it I called attention to the
large and increasing number of the insane in the United
Kingdom; tq our disgraceful system of child-marriages;
to the growing suicide rate ; to our disgusting system of
inducing certain mentally and physically diseased persons
to marry; and to a slight operation which I was the first
to propose as a means of checking the increase in the
number of the insane, and in preventing innocent off-
spring from being cursed by some parental blemish.

The statistics ■ which appear in the present work,
although they are appalling to the thinking man and
woman, must not be taken as a complete statement of
actual conditions. The figures are obtained from official
sources — the Census Returns and the Annual Lunacy
Reports. It is well known that there are many thousands
of mentally unsound persons in this country who would
not be classed by lawyers as insane, and who therefore
could not be legally certified by physicians. This fact
is recognized by all physicians who have studied this
question. Many criminals, neurotics, erotics, inebriates,
drug habituis, kleptomaniacs, drunkards, borderland
cases, "failures in life," and children who are mentally
backward, mild epileptics, those suff'ering from severe
chorea or megraine are mentally unsound, and will,
when the struggle for life has to be made, degenerate
into insane, even to an extent to satisfy lawyers ! They
are almost certain to propagate a degenerate stock.

To those who are constantly attempting to soothe the
public ear to the cry of our poor degenerate class, and who
foolishly tell the public that "all is well," I would point
out that mental and physical diseases are on the increase;
the number of lunatics, idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded,
epileptic, and mentally backward children is increasing ;

via INTRODUCTION.

the suicide and attempted suicide rates are increasing ;
the amount of money spent upon alcohol is increasing; the
number of juvenile criminals increases and will increase ;
nervous diseases are on the increase; prostitution, and
especially clandestine prostitution, increases ; the infant
death-rate is a national disgrace ; married women are
gradually fighting shy of maternity, while many refuse to
suckle their children ; criminal abortion is on the increase,
and checks to impregnation ; the number of drunkards,
and especially of drunken women, increases ; the annual
reports of the Inspector-General of Recruiting for the Army
show an increase in the number rejected ; we encourage
lunatics and other degenerates to marry and to beget
children, with a painful disregard for the coming race; we
forbid many healthy men and women to marry ; we permit
the insane discharged from asylums to resume marital
relations, or to be married; the number of hospitals and
hospital patients increases, while a general desire to treat
our lives as a joke, instead of looking upon it as a great
and prolonged battle, is permeating all classes in our
country ; worst sign of all — the majority seem to think
that mere commercial progress is the only kind of progress
worth paying any attention to. I would rather see a
country healthy and poor than diseased and wealthy.
The eternal struggle for wealth is slowly but surely blind-
ing our eyes to existing conditions.

I have been told by my friends that a social Hercules is
required to write upon the subjects treated of in this
work. I do not think so, because I believe there will
always be a sufficient number of good men and women
who will agree with the majority of my suggestions. I
have kept before me the beautiful words of an eminent
judge, the late Sir James F. Stephen, who said, "Let us
dream no dreams and tell no lies, but go on our way,
wherever it may lead us, with our eyes open and our
heads erect. If death ends all, we cannot meet it better.
If not, let us enter, whatever be the next scene, like
honest men, with no sophistry in our mouths and no
masks on our faces."

I may be wrongly accused of having brought certain
diseases of poor humanity into the clear light of day:
conditions which have unfortunately been kept in the

INTRODUCTION. IX

background. But in dealing- with the diseases of society,
one must make one's meaning clear, and not colourless.
The author who adds too much water to his ink is in grave
■danger of being misunderstood !

There are two standpoints from which the public
considers this big question of degeneracy. The higher
standpoint believes that man and woman are, when not
weighted down by hereditary disease brought on by
human agency, capable of attaining a higher platform of
morals, and are made after the image of the Creator.
Those who occupy the lower, find comfort in the theory
that man and woman are but poor things at the best;
that they do not possess the necessary will power to with-
stand temptations of all kinds ; and that they are as liable
to go wrong as is the spark to fly upwards. They "put
their money " on the lame horse ; do not recognize that
there is a heredity for good as well as for evil; and are
willing — nay, anxious to palliate any obsession in human
conduct. These select their ideal or standard more from
the diseased than from the healthy, and prefer to build up
their pharisaical theory from the police-court records than
from the good deeds and good lives of honest men and
women. It is quite true that a brain may have a weak
link in its "chain," and that if a tension is put upon
this link the individual will show some symptom, or break
some law. But why take a degenerate weakling as our
ideal ? Rather select from the better type.

If we try to study the causes of mental and physical
degeneracy "with our eyes open" and "telling no lies,"
we are certain to do some good work, and perhaps obtain
some good results. On the other hand, when a writer
has the honour to be a member of the small band of
pioneers of thought, and brings forward proposals which
advocate a departure from what is to many a kind of
fetish worship — "the beaten track," there are not a few
ignorant persons who bitterly resent having their fossilized
dogmas and shibboleths upset. It would be amusing,
were it not so sad, to study the number of persons who
resent "any change whatsoever" — always excepting that
blessed change from the lower to a higher dividend ! This
mental defect is not to be wondered at when we con-
sider the large number of those who take as their ideal '^

X INTRODUCTION.

the person who has "no new-fangled ideas," and "the
man who has never" (alas, never!) " changed his opinion
upon anything." These are of the herd who have really
no mind to change, their idea-changing brain-centre
being non-existent. Many persons hate what they doubt
and cannot understand; they consider all such questions
"uncalled for," and label them non-existent, thereby
representing a class of degenerates who, although of
adult age, possess the infantile or non-developed mind.
Far too large a number of the 7,000,000 persons now
entitled to vote at Parliamentary elections deeply resent
the action of any advanced thinker. Like the rabbit
that scurries back . to its burrow, and from such safe
retreat surveys the disturber of its indolent dreams and
fancies, many persons take refuge in an absolute denial
of the necessity for any change whatsoever, and will
only, like the calf following the milk-pail, agree to any
change if their personal and petty interests are at stake>
Their mental horizon is bound by those conditions from,
which they gain their daily bread — be this "horizon"
bacon, beer, corn, cotton, money, or egoism !

In this work I have presented only very moderate pro-
posals, believing as I do that the writer who advocates
moderate views is the one who attains the best results.
If they help, in ever so small a measure, to stimulate
honest thought, and to lead towards a lessening of mental
degeneracy, I shall feel amply repaid. A large part of it
has been laid, by their request, before the Royal Commis-
sion on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded ; while
in 1903 and 1905 I addressed two meetings — the Medico-
Legal Society, London, and another at the Town Hall,
Leicester — upon the subjects now discussed. >/

I have attempted to lay some facts beforfe the non-
medical thinker, and to avoid the pedantic jargon of the
mere specialist. I have attempted to begin at the be-
ginnings, knowing that there is no Land of Promise to be
gained if we neglect these beginnings. A mere study of
the insane does not give us much help. It would be better
if we attempted to simplify the study of degeneracy by
discarding high-sounding names, and took for our guid-
ance the sayings of two grea:t sociologists — " Whatsoever
a man soweth that shall he also reap," and "Do men.

INTRODUCTION. XI

gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles ?" If we permit
the insane to marry; if we permit idiots, imbeciles, and
drunkards to beget children; if we allow children of the
ages of twelve and fourteen to marry ; if we compel the
"unfit" to marry, and forbid the " fit " to marry — then,
surely, we cannot grumble if the crop which we have sown
is bad, and the parent degenerate tree brings forth
degenerate offspring.

The use of the word "insane," or "lunatic," I contend,
keeps progress back. It would be much better if we
adopted the word used chiefly by Dr. Max Nordau —
" degenerate," adding to it some descriptive phrase, such
as — degenerate with alcoholic tendency, degenerate with
suicidal tendency, degenerate with kleptomaniac tendency,
degenerate with lying tendency, degenerate with homicidal
tendency, degenerate with sexual tendency, or degenerate
with neurotic tendency. Here I would add that the
" neurotic" tendency in the parent is most likely to beget
degenerate offspring; in fact, the neurotic symptoms must
soon be recognized as the first symptoms of what we term
insanity. Many degenerates are not, from the lawyer's
standpoint, "lunatics " fit for the asylum; but they are of
" unsound mind," and fit for medical treatment. Perhaps
they might be termed "borderland" cases, and who will
beget children that will probably be congenital degene-
rates, or "insane." I do not put forward this sug'gestion
with the view of inducing people to believe that what they
term " mild " cases are the least dangerous. The mild or
ill-defined case of degeneracy is by far the most dangerous.
It is Goethe who puts the idea forcibly when he says —
"Fools and sensible persons are alike harmless. It is
only the half-foolish and half-wise who are the most
dangerous." In other words, the " faked " degenerate — •
"faked" by the schoolmaster, "faked-" by the tailor,
" faked " by the parent to act the part of the normal man
or woman — who is the great producer of the inmates of
asylums. This " faked " specimen of society is sometimes
crafty and cunning enough to avoid breaking the law, and
at others to be a brilliant swindler or criminal. But the
world is much better without him and his poor progeny.

I have entered a strong protest against the mental
educating of our criminal and degenerate classes. By all

3fll INTRODUCTION.

means give such physical training, and teach them manual
trades. It is not reasonable to contend that the educated
criminal, or educated degenerate with criminal tendencies,
will use his brain in honest work. Rather will he become
the educated criminal. By educating these we are only
sowing the seed which must, sooner or later, give us a large
crop of clever, able, and cunning criminals and perverts.
Teach these only some manual labour, and none other.
Lately I have heard a person connected with the control
of congenital feeble-minded speak of " the educated idiot."

I have avoided entering upon the question of " environ-
ment " as a cause of degeneracy. Heredity is the great
cause. Environment, so called, is in the vast majority of
cases only heredity transplanted to another locality. The
weakling of all the higher stages of civilization must
necessarily drift to the lower level. He is found at this
slum level. Many chapters are written upon "environ-
ment," the writers seemingly never having asked them-
selves the question — From where do the people of the
slums come ? y

Next to he^dity is the big question of nutrition, or
good and well-cooked food. What is true of vegetable
life is true of animal life ; for the child which is starved or
poisoned, no matter whether it be inside or outside of its
mother's womb, cannot be healthy either in mind or body.
Almost all food is now drugged, while our ignorant
magistrates have made matters worse by adopting the
quack term "commercially pure," when they wish to
protect those who are more dangerous poisoners than the
criminals who poison the few with homicidal intent. The
latter murder only a few, the former millions.

In the first edition I began and ended by stating that
the study of the causes of degeneracy and of shipwrecked
lives was not a pleasant subject to deal with. I think no
one, except from a deep sense of duty and conviction,
would take up such a study. It is often nauseous, re-
pulsive, and a cause of mental dyspepsia. I also asked
that the critics would confine their criticisms to my actual
remarks, and not put words or suggestions into my mouth
which I have no wish to be associated with. In the
majority of cases my request has been granted. A few,
no doubt influenced by personal considerations and morbid

INTRODUCTION. xiil

conditions, have made my suggestions a "peg" upon,
which to hang their own theories, while a few have shown
malice. To the latter I offer a sincere expression of pity,
and recommend a perusal of that awful "curse" of the
Cardinal upon the Jackdaw of Rheims (in the Ingoldsby
Legends) —

" He cursed him in eating, he cursed him in drinking;
He cursed him in coughing, in sneezing and winking;
He cursed him in sitting, in standing, in lying ;
He cursed him in walking, in resting, in flying;
He cursed him in living, he cursed him in dying.
Never was heard such a terrible curse;
But what gave rise to no little surprise,
Nobody seemed one penny the worse."

I would sincerely hope the time will soon come when
our universities and schools will, with Governmental
support, establish lectureships for the study of the causa-
tion of degeneracy, criminality, insanity, pauperism, and
defectives. After all, " The best study of mankind is man""
— not in its babyhood, childhood, or manhood only, but
in the parenthood and pre-natal states. Unfortunately,
although we know that the very backbone of a nation is
its manhood and womanhood, we pay no attention to the
study of the begetting of a sound offspring. The Poor Law
authorities grant a few doles to the pauper class — and
stop there. The Lunacy Boards confine the insane for a
little time, releasing them as soon as possible — and stop-
there. Our prison authorities see that the prisoner puts
in his or her "time," discharges them— and stop there.
The different religious sects squabble concerning their
dogmas and shibboleths, and make no effort to study one
of the highest forms of race culture — health, well knowing
that the great Jewish religion is largely a religion of
health. Again, we vote large sums of money " to discover
the North Pole," to dig up relics in Egypt and Palestine,
to establish " chairs " for the study of music, for the study"
of war — in fact, for everything except the study of the
begetting of a nation physically and mentally sound.
Such a policy of inaction cannbt bring forth good fruit.

It is therefore with much pleasure one notices that
Mr. Patterson, on January igo6, introduced in the United

xiv INTRODUCTION.

States Senate a Bill "to establish a laboratory for the
study of the criminal, pauper, and defective classes."
The Bill runs as follows : — " That there shall be est?iblished
in the Department of the Interior a laboratory for the
study of the abnormal classes, and the work shall include,
not only laboratory investigations, but also the collection
of sociological and pathological data, especially such as
may be found in institutions for the criminal, pauper, and
defective classes, and generally in hospitals and other
institutions. The laboratory to be under a director, to
be appointed by the President on the advice of the Senate,
to be paid 4000 dollars yearly, and to make a yearly
report to the Secretary of the Interior.. Seven assistants
at 9,720 dollars per annum to be appointed, and the Senate
to vote 25,000 dollars for the carrying on of the work."

If we wish to study insanity, or, as I would prefer the
term, degeneracy, we must take as our basis for study —
Will Power, or the Sovereignty of the Will. Obsession,
or lapse, is common to man and to woman, and this may
■ be a danger to the individual or to a nation. In the
major obsessions this danger injures every one. At a
public meeting at Leicester, held in 1905, to discuss de-
generacy. Dr. G. Clifton, J. P., and chairman for many
years of the Borough Asylum, stated that he had dis-
charged many feeble-minded whose will power had been
slightly improved by a residence in the asylum. But their
power of will after release was of so low a type that it was
obliterated by the slightest strain, even by one or two
glasses of mild beer. We must remember that the
strength of the strongest chain is that of the weakest link
in that chain.

I should be more than remiss in my duty if I failed here
and elsewhere to publicly thank The Walter Scott Pub-
lishing Company for publishing the first and second edition
of this work. It will come as a surprise to all thinking
minds when I state that no less th^an eleven — apparently
respectable — publishing firms could not see their way to
publish the first edition ! It is a pity so many publishers
will only issue books which are " certain to go ! " Facilis
^st descensus avemi.

Liverpool,

October 1906.

RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

CHAPTER I.

THE BEGETTING OF A HEALTHY RACE.

" To be a good animal is the first requisite to success in life, and to be
•a nation of good animals is the first condition to national prosperity."

— Herbert Spencer.

It is my wish that this work shall be considered as a
plea for the unborn — the coming race, and as an effort to
lessen the disgusting and degrading sum-total of unneces-
sary mental and physical degeneracy, suifering, vice, and
criminality which we — as a Christian nation, and appar-
ently with light hearts— insist upon handing down to
innocent and non-responsible offspring ; thus stealing
their birthright from them — the right to be healthy and to
be happy; the right to be useful citizens, and the healthy
begettors of a strong race.

The entire question of encouraging and permitting
•degenerates to marry and beget children resolves itself
into one of cruelty to innocent children. 1 consider that
the most fiendish form of Christian devilry and torture is
in our permitting diseased parents to beget diseased off-
spring. , The highest gift which the Creator has bestowed
upon man and woman is the creation of child life. Yet
how frequently is this great gift abused ! The chief
question which each honest man and woman must put
to themselves is — Can we improve the physical and mental
conditions of the children : of those who are again to be-
g-et others ; or are we to encourage degeneracy ? Do we
not stand condemned when we permit certain degenerates -
to curse their oiffspring with a mental or physical disease
•^-disease which must make their lives a misery; which
.makes them capable of handing down- those diseases to a
second and third generation ; and which must increase the
total number of lunatics, idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded,

2 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

deaf mutes, alcoholics, neurotics, sexual perverts, and
physically diseased ? If we are justified in punishing our
children with such demoniacal torture — because we must,
if honest, recognize that these children have committed no
offence whatsoever — then I despair of good results. My
simple contention is — and surely it cannot be described as
a wild or extravagant contention — that no person, sane or
insane, has the right to punish an innocent child ' by
inflicting it with any bodily or mental disease, so that it
either dies prematurely or is a mental or physical cripple.
Such punishing is murder — murder of life, murder of
health, murder of success, and murder of everything worth
having.

The entire subject of physical deterioration and of
mental degeneration is to some a disagreeable one. Why,
it is difficult for the clean mind to tell ; but it is a fact that
there is a large number of persons belonging to those
strange societies known as the "Great Taboo" and
"Mrs. Grundy & Co.," who would rather "hush up"
everything ; allow thousands of innocent persons to suffer,
than hear the truth. Such persons constitute a great
danger to the public health and to the moral well-being of
our country. Not only will those creatures denounce any
man or woman who speaks or writes upon degeneration,
but they will carry their venom so far as to try to ruin the
honest thinker and writer. It is for the public to say
which party is to be followed — those who cry "Hush!"
to all efforts for developing race culture, or those who are
(trying to improve the physical and mental condition of
our race. Those who advocate race culture, however,
can have nothing in common with those who demand such
silence as constitutes race suicide.

At present we are engaged in the apparently pleasant
pastime of manufacturing diseased infants, idiots,
imbeciles, and insane. We allow all these to marry and
to beget offspring. How long is this to continue ? The
cowardly policy of laissezfaire has been tried and has been
found wanting. I quite understand that a subject may be
unpleasant — most unpleasant ; but this is no valid reason
for suppressing sad facts, and for keeping the public in
dark ignorance of the increasing sum-total of physical

THE BEGETTING OF A HEALTHY RACE. 3

deterioration and mental degeneration. For the encourage-
ment of those who try their best to improve the present
conditions, let them remember that medical science and
humanity, by examining unpleasant subjects associated
with public health, in so doing, convert these painful
o. questions into clean, honest and reputable questions.
Those who deny this are of a prurient and erotic mind.
They are of the ilk who foster morbid sexual ideas, and
who think that woman was created for two objects —
slavery and prostitution. They wallow in the filth,
pruriency and obscenity of some poets, novelists, and
playwrights, and devour reports of divorce trials. Many
phases of mental disease and moral obsession are of an
extremely painful nature, but those who refuse to devote
some time to the consideration of these diseased states
are moral cowards. One might readily debase oneself
to the low moral level of many degenerates by calling
them vile names. Medical and social science, however,
encourage us not to be content with calling names, but to
fearlessly and patiently seek for the causes of degeneracy
and deterioration, else medicine would prostitute its high
calling. I say that those who fail to study, or shirk from
studying the causes, fail absolutely in their duty. These
derelicts or foul sores and products of our social system
are as deserving of study as are those who suffer from
any loathsome disease. Just as it is the duty of the night-
soil man to enter and to clean out sewers and ashpits,
so it is, unhappily, the solemn duty of medical science to
survey all the causes and all the products of mad and
diseased humanity. For I contend that many of those
suffering from mental and physical disease — the scum and
flotsam — deserve to be pitied and considered. We must
not lay the whole blame upon them, for they are more
sinned against than sinning. They are often the spectres
and ghosts of their begettors. Who, for instance, will
blame the idiot infant because it is born so? Only those
who would murder it and cast it into a hole so deep that
they could not ever again see the direct product of his or
her misdeeds. I have no hesitation in saying that those
who mercifully study the mental and physical diseases
of society, and who go to the trouble and expense of

4 -RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

pointing out the causes, give the cup of cold water to
those sufferers who have gone under in the battle of life,
and that they will receive the "well done" reward. ^My
admiration goes out to those who are not dismayed by the
often loathsome and repellant diseases from doing their
duty to the suffering and pained, and who sometimes give
their life or health to the study of mental and physical
disease, no matter how loathsome the inquiry.

Does it not seem strange that race culture has failed to
receive that amount of attention which is its proper due ?
Literature has its admirers and devotees, science receives
public recognition, the fainter and sculptor have picture
galleries placed at their disposal, and often at the public
expense ; while each calling has its societies and meetings
to discuss various questions — so educating their members.
Yet, although we are told that "God created man in His
own image, in the image of God created He him^ ; male
and female created He them. And God blessed them ;
and God said unto them. Be fruitful and multiply and
replenish the earth, and subdue it " — yet, although we
know that the creation of man represents the very
highest creative power of an Almighty Being — greater
than the creation of the sun, moon, stars, and myriads of
worlds — we poor creatures of to-day, many of us totally
unworthy of the designation man or woman, pay little or
no attention to race culture. We seem, indeed, to forget
that the Almighty has practically said to man and woman-
kind — " I shall no longer create human beings. I appoint
you to act as My deputy." A high ideal such as this
makes one long for a return to those times when mankind
had a distinct worship of Health and all that pertained to
it, and when the goddess Hygeia was an emblem of race
culture. It would almost appear that the British public,
in their wild chase after money, had lost what Mr.
L. Hearn terms the " race instinct," the instinct to
preserve and develop all their many good points, and to
cast out all defects.

The inter-marriage of British with foreigners should not
be encouraged. A few of us know the terrible mon-
strosities produced by the inter-marriage of the white man
andblack, the white man with the redskin, the white man
» " Sons of God."— Old Book.

THE BEGETTING OF A HEALTHY RACE. S

with the native Hindu, or the white man with the
Chinese. From the standpoint of race culture it is
difficult to understand the action of those who advocate
the naturalization of foreigners. If a man wishes to
become an " Englishman," and pays a few pounds; we
can understand this transaction from an ^ s. d. point of
view. But no sociologist can understand how this makes
a man an Englishman ! To their credit be it said, many
foreigners refuse such transmogrification or sleight-of-
finance trick. Nor can one understand how our Census
Returns are rendered absolutely unreliable, as shown by
Mr. Arnold White, by allowing a person to state that he
is an Englishman simply because he has been born in
England and has foreign parents! Nor, again, can one
follow the mental gymnastics which try to make all the
foreign seamen in the British mercantile marine into
Englishmen by paying a fine of a few shillings ! One can
understand the story of the ass trying to prove itself a
liorse because it was born in a stable, but such methods
are unreliable and grossly misleading when used by
human beings. This effort of the Englishman to convert
or to bribe foreigners to change their race shows that the
race instinct is dying out, and that mere commercial
■considerations are of more supreme importance than a
distinct and pure stock;

The last India i census shows that there were 87,030
Eurasians in India — a cross between an Englishman and
a native woman — a "product of civilization" which does
not present any good features. Americans also in
legalizing the inter-marriage of white with negro,
mulatto, and Indian, are but poor patriots, and seem to
point to the fact that they despair of breeding a pure race
from their own stock.

No race has been so scrupulously particular as has the
Hebrew in prohibiting the inter-marriage of those of their
own race with the Gentiles. And with what result?
That this race has for 5000 years retained all their racial
features, racial qualities, and racial ambitions — all keen
and supreme, although they have lived among all kinds
of nationalities.

To-day seems to be the age of *' sports " — unfortunately

6 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

many of these having little influence in advancing a
general physical or mental culture. Horse-racing,
yachting, cricket, football, bowls, tennis, boating, ex-
treme training in athletics, clubs of all kinds, theatres,
music-halls, and dances. All these go to prevent men
and women from giving a sufficient amount of time and
attention to race culture. No one complains of any of
the above sports — so long as they take up just the amount
of attention they deserve, so long as they do not interfere
with national physique, and so long as they are a means
to that end of bringing out the very best national
qualities.

Sir Robert Anderson says that the twentieth century
promises to be "the most conceited century since God
made man on the earth." If so, this really means that
conceit and ignorance are twins, and that we have nothing
to be conceited about. We spend about ;£i8o, 000,000 each
twelve months in alcoholic drinks. Are we right in being"
conceited herein ? In 1859 there were 37,000 certified
insane in England and Wales, and in 1903, 120,000 odd —
from I in 536 to I in 285 in 1903. No room for conceit
here ! Although education has been made free, and
although the number of "educated" persons has increased,
it is to be noted that the number of persons convicted of
criminal offences gradually increases. Does this offer
ground for conceit ?

To what goal will a policy of reaction and drift
lead us? I do not exaggerate when I say that a
large proportion of our population is saturated — many
beyond cure — with physical and mental disease. If we
fail to give some very practical amelioration to the deep,
causes of degeneration — some amelioration other than
the right of suicide, homes for incurables, lifelong
imprisonment, large doses of bromide, "after cure" (save
the word!) institutions for the "recovered" insane, or
labour colonies, all of which may be useful but fail
absolutely to attack the causes, then I contend that we
fail in our duty. People say it is "heart-breaking" to
see innocent children suffering owing to parental depravity,
but such expressions are mere cant and drivel so long as
we elevate inaction into a virtue, denounce pioneers of

THE BEGETTING OF A HEALTHY RACE. 7

thought, fail to recognize that the only cure is prevention
and that our only right is to beget healthy and not
diseased children.

The sum-total of human misery and social wreckage
which floats aimlessly about to-day is a very grave
menace to our national existence. It is steadily but,
unfortunately, quietly and stealthily increasing. The
question of physical and mental degeneration is now
about to become a national question, for we recognize it
as being one of the most serious conditions now threatening
public life and safety. It is the social problem of to-day;
although as yet it is talked about in whispers. It will not
do to tinker with it. Carlyle has said — "The strong
thing is the right thing," Breeding an imperial race from
degenerates must fail. It will not do — -and this is the
placebo of many who shrink from grasping the " nettle " —
to contend that when we have cast every unsound case
into an asylum, institution, or "home," or "school,"
that we have done all that we should have done or can do.
The cry for pity that we hear from these poor, imprisoned
degenerates may be stifled by us with sedatives, high
walls and padded rooms, and prevented from harrowing
the public ear. Many of these, in a passing phase of
sanity, recognizing the hoplessness of their lives and the
dread of stamping their blemishes on an off'spring, end
their lives, and frequently the lives of their children, by
what we glibly term "suicide." But not one case of
suicide occurs but tells every honest thinker that some
one has broken a law of health, a law of common-sense,
and the eternal law of justice to offspring.

We may compare race culture and race suicide to a
river, at first pure, clear, and health-giving. We begin
to foul the pure condition by adding gross impurities to
it. Day by day, hour by hour, and year after year we add
diseased humanity — the children begotten by the diseased,
idiots, imbeciles, epileptics, the insane, deformed, and
those contaminated by venereal and other diseases." All
these contaminating influences go on permeating, causing
more disease, so converting the river into a cesspool, until
it, ever widening and deepening, overflows, saturates and
inoculates everything within its reach. Does any one

8 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

contend that such a scheme of pollution works for race
culture? Rather, I contend, that it works for race
suicide. Let us focus our attention more upon the
human being' and give less attention to animals. "Save
the 4og or cat " is, no doubt, a good cry, but would it not
give better results if we cried, " Save the children " ?

If prevention is better than cure, why not prevent?
Unfortunately the fertility of the "unfit" is well recog-
nized by all, and when we couple the marked fertility ot
degenerates with the increasing sterility — artificial and
acquired — of the " fit," we must, unless blind to all duty,
see that grave and disastrous conditions are ahead.
Breeding from degenerates has never paid a nation, and
it never will. The existing conditions compel thinking
men and women to agree to this — that the preservation
of the supposed rights of individual idiots, imbeciles,
epileptics, lunatics, feeble-minded, and habitual criminal
to beget offspring is but of very secondary importance
when considered with the future welfare, the mental and
physical strength of our nation. We have been engaged
in polluting the pure river of national health. Both
physical and mental deterioration increase and accumu-
late. Why? Because we have refused to begin at the
fountain-head, the creation of healthy life, and have failed
to apply the warning given to us by the Jewish biologist
who said, some 5000 years ago, " For whatsoever a man
sow that shall he also reap." Rather do many prefer to
prove that it is a lie to say that we cannot grow grapes off
thorns or figs off thistles. The farmer, in selecting his
stock, acts more humanly and with more conscience when
he separates the "wheat from the chaff," by keeping the
best for purposes of procreation, and taking the inferior
for work or food purposes, sterilizing the latter. We
have refused to protect the sane from the insane. At
present our race is not improving physically, and if not
physically it cannot eventually improve mentally. There
is an increase of the various physical and mental feeble ;
and if we do not take action it is just possible that things
will go from bad to worse and that the incapables, or
parasites, may swamp the capables and workers.

It is not as if degeneracy and sterility went hand-in-

THE BEGETTING OF A HEALTHY RACE. 9

hand, or as if the "weeds" produced by our ill-managed
social system died off. No good will result if we think
that humanity is going to be morally and physically re-
generated, or find salvation only in education and the
lessening of disease — if we neglect procreation from
sound parents. Education has increased. But so has
degeneracy, criminality, and suicide. Doctors have
lessened the sick and the death-rate. Yet the number
of hospitals increase. The feeble, immature, and diseased
are helped to live longer, and so to weigh down the
'' working bee " with increased financial responsibility.
Hours of labour have been shortened and the factory
age heightened, while health authorities lessen the
adulteration of foods. Yet we do not advance as we
should; while the "borderland" line separating the
degenerate from the non-degenerate is becoming more
unrecognizable. Surely if the public were made to visit
the prisons or institutions in which they have cast these
poor products of their misdeeds, and could hear the cry
of these, and saw their suffering, they would at least say,
"We shall have compassion upon you and the coming
race. We shall prevent you from begetting more de-
generates. We shall form ourselves into a real society
for the prevention of cruelty to children."

Even if we issue rules for the guidance of those about
to marry, increase the minimum marriage age, insist upon
a pre-nuptial certificate of good health, cease to obstruct
the marriage of the fit, or to encourage the marriage of
the "unfit," make it illegal for degenerates to be joined
in marriage, adopt a policy of non-interference in attempted
suicide, encourage infanticide, criminal abortion, and the
use of checks to impregnation ; prohibit the employment
of pregnant women and children in factories — even if we
encourage all these, there will yet remain at least, at the
very least, 60,721 publicly recognized idiots, imbecile, and
feeble-minded, 117,272 lunatics, 23,244 criminals, 9,822
deaf and dumb from childhood, 60,000 prostitutes, 62,187
epileptics, 88,347 backward children, and about 18,242
habitual vagrants, all engaged in breeding degenerates.

The legacy of degeneracy which has been handed down
to us, and which we apparently enjoy handing down to

10 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

Others, is too vast, too deep to be cured by mere palliatives.
Why? Because the law of non-responsibility comes in,
and applies to lunatics, idiots, imbeciles, and feeble-
minded—in fact, to all likely to beget feeble-minded off-
spring. If these poor products of man's baser self and
debauchery are not guided by law, -by any facts, by any
reason, by any knowledge of heredity and physiology,
they will go on breeding degenerates. Non-marriage
will not be any hindrance to it as non-marriage was no
hindrance to those who, in the twelve years (1892 to 1903)
begat at least 463,270 illegitimate children (see Registrar- .
General's Report, England). The cry of the poor little
demented and helpless children, quite inoffensive and guilt-
less of their degraded state, should act as a sleepless
stimulus to all who believe that our duty is to help the weak j
to give " the cup of cold water " to them ; and to see that
no child is denied its birthright — to be born healthy; to
enjoy life ; and to be a useful citizen. When the Christian
religion begins to preach that there is a religion of health,
as well as a religion of faith, and that the man or woman
who curses a child with disease of mind or body is a social
outcast, it will have taken another step in showing us that
it is worth preserving.

A good story is told of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, He
had been Called in by a mother to see a mentally afflicted
child. Giving his opinion, he said that a consultation
should have been held some time before. The mother
replied that such had taken place ; but Holmes said,
"Ah, the consultation should have been held some fifty
years ago!" It will not do for the diseased who have
begotten diseased children to erect a tombstone over their
dead children's bodies, and try to deceive themselves and
others by printing upon the stone — ^" Thy will, O Lord,
not mine, be done." This is cant and self-deception.

If you knew the children's bodies would be paralyzed or pained,
If you knew their brain must suffer from some foul parental stain,
If you knew that God's creation had been robbed of half its rights
Would you still continue acting as if Nature forgave your faults,
And pretended that she heeds not when we break each natural
law?

CHAPTER II.

WHAT IS A DEGENERATE ? — NATIONAL MUTILATORS.

Throughout this work I shall use the term "mental
degenerate " to mean a person whose mental condition is
that which is found in the insane, feeble-minded, and in
those who have lost their will-power and self-control to
such an extent that they cannot command their actions,
and are incapable of obedience to the moral laws and
those of society. I shall also apply the term "physical
deteriorant " to those whose physical well-being has
suffered from some bodily disease — both classes being
unable to beget healthy offspring.

What is a mental degenerate ? I have drawn up the
following definition with the aid of Coroner Troutbeck : —
"A degenerate is a male or female who has transmitted,
or who has the power of transmitting, an incurable
mental or physical disease to his or her offspring." Dr.
Max Nordau has obliged me with the following defini-
tion: —

" Paris, io^th April 1904.
"Dear Dr. Rentoul, — In my book Degeneration I adopt
the very acceptable definition of degeneracy given by Morel,
which runs as follows: — 'The clearest notion we can form
of degeneracy is to regard it as a morbid deviation from
an original type.' I may formulate now this definition
in the following clearer and more concise shape: — De-
generacy is a deviation from the generic type caused by
the incapacity of the degenerate offspring to attain to its
full development. This incapacity is a consequence of a
weakening of the germ plasma, most probably by the
effect of the intoxication of the parents. What differ-
entiates degeneracy from other deviations of the generic
type is this: the degenerates tend towards extinction by
rapid diminution of the power of reproduction, while non-
degenerate typical formations are infinitely transmitted

II

12 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

without interfering in any way with the normal vitality
and fecundity of their bearers. — Yours faithfully,

Max Nordau."

Nordau here refers to the human race generally and not
to a city or nation only. When he speaks of "rapid
diminution" he evidently means the short few years —
a few hours, comparatively speaking — during which human
beings remain on this world as compared with the age of
the world — minutes as compared with millions of years.
He paraphrases the Bible quotation — "Whatsoever a man
soweth that shall he also reap," and applies it to the race
as a whole. It is not pleasant to think that when a nation,
a part of the human race, adopts a policy of "drift"
and refuses to adopt practical measures to reduce the
many causes of degeneration to the narrowest limits, it
must surely destroy itself by a kind of suicidal action, for
there are many ways by which a nation can commit
suicide. If degeneration increases it will bring about its
own so-called "cure" — namely, national destruction. But
this "cure" will be worse than the disease, as it means
the destruction of some local "world." Such a picture,
if not consoling, should stimulate us to fresh thought and
action. Each nation has had and has its conception, birth,
development, decay, and death. It is our duty to post-
pone national decay, just as we should prevent the mental
and physical decay of the individual. If the theologian be
right in stating that a nation, or local world, must
eventually become so weighted by degenerates that the
' Creator will allow it to work out its own destruction and
disappearance, then Nordau and others agree as to the
conclusions, but perhaps differ as to what part is due to
the Creator and what to the people. In former times the
Creator was pictured as a kind of superior tin god. He
was dragged into everything — ashpits and sewers — and
attempts were made to placate His wrath by sacrifices
and so-called religious processions. To-day medical
science does not attempt in a cowardly manner to blame
the Creator, but advises men and women to exercise self-
control, will-power, and obedience to the moral laws. It
points to that worst form of paralysis, that moral paralysis

WHAT IS A DEGENERATE? 1 3

which ends in degeneracy and race extinction. It is, how-
ever, stimulating; to know that so long as we adopt very
active and honest methods to reduce the causes of
degeneracy to the narrowest limits, our own country,
our local "world," has very reliable means at hand for
keeping off the death of our nation. That great branch
of the Israelitish race, the. Jewish, has outlived the
civilizations of Syria, Arabia, Persia, -Babylonia, Egypt,
Carthage, Greece, Rome and others. The black man is
disappearing from Aus-tralia, the Maori from New Zealand,
the red man from America, and the Hottentot from Africa.
But the Jewish race stands upright, still flourishes and
progresses : chiefly, I think, owing to the grand code
of moral and physical laws given to it by Moses — a code
comprising an ethical religion and a hygienic religion.

CHAPTER III.

THE PRESENT AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL DETERIORATION —
PROPOSED FREE MEDICAL TREATMENT FOR ALL CITIZENS.

" A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit ; neither .can a corrupt tree
bring forth good fruit." — Old Book.

When we begin to look for the causes of mental degeneracy
we too frequently begin by thinking of mental causes only.
Such a course will not bring us to right conclusions, and
therefore believing that the mental condition is often
caused by the physical conditions, and that the sound body
is still required upon which to build the sound mind, I shall
refer first to the unnecessary amount of physical disease
which so seriously infests the community. Any physical
disease which leaves the man or woman broken down in
physical health, or a cripple, or permanently diseased,
must necessarily make such person more or less unfit to
beget healthy children and to be good citizens.

How much unnecessary physical disease exists in the
country I shall attempt to point out, prefacing my remarks
by the statement that until we have a national system, if
even for a few years, for notifying all kinds of sickness to
the local health authority, we shall have no accurate idea
of the lamentable total of bodily sickness.

The following are a few statistics which go to show
thoughtful persons that we are "on the wrong tack" in
not bringing these facts to bear upon the increase of
insanity. We cannot gather figs of thorns, and we
cannot breed a mentally healthy people from the physically
diseased.

The fact that, according to the 1901 Census, there were
in the United Kingdom 27,874 medical practitioners,
75,936 nurses, and 34,931 chemists, not including dentists,
midwives and assistants, shows that in order to supply all
these persons with work there must be an unnecessary
amount of ill health.

14

AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL DETERIORATION.

15

Duringf 1903, of 359,276 young persons below the age
of 14 examined by the certifying factory surgeons, no
less than 3,946 were rejected as being unable to work in
factories, and for the following reasons: — 236 for imperfect
growth, 335 for defective sight, 51 for deafness, 23 for
mental defects, 104 for heart or lung disease, and 250 for
debility. It is well known that these factory doctors
give the benefit of the doubt to many children.

Dr. Farr, who may justly be termed the father of vital
statistics, said (Thirty-fifth Annual Report) that to one
annual death in a body of men, two are on an average
constantly sick. Now, for the year 1903, there were
514,628 deaths registered in England and Wales, and it
we multiply the number by two, it shows that there were
1,029,256 persons so ill as to require medical treatment
(bedfast illness), or about i in 30 of the population. What
number there are who are not ill, but do not feel in good
health, it is impossible to tell, but one might approximately
fix it at 10,000,000. The following table of the expectation
of sickness — not of death — is as follows : —

At the age of 20 a person will have 4 days' illness yearly.

20 to 30 ,

5

to 6 ,,

45

7

50

9

to 10 ,,

55

12

to 13 ,,

60

16

65

31

70

74

This table affords a fair idea of the number of days'
sickness which the average adult male will have yearly. It
follows that if the years of womanhood, babyhood, infant-
hood, and childhood were included, the total life sickness
would be very much higher. 1

In the London police during 1903 there were on an
average 444 police off duty owing to sick leave, and
during that year 7,582 separate individuals were on the
sick list — or a total of 45.9 per cent, of the force had been
sick. It is to be remembered that this force is a picked

' I in 10 of those assured against accidents meets with an accident each
year, and 1 per cent, of such are killed.

l6 ■ RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

force — well housed, well fed, and thoroughly examined by
a doctor before admission to the force ; further, they
have free medical treatment and medicines, and, I believe,
half their pay is deducted for sickness extending over a
fixed number of days.

All the applications for the Home and Indian Civil Services
have to undergo a physical examination before admission.
So have those trying to obtain employment in banks and
other commercial concerns; while some large employers
of labour now insist upon all their intending employees
being physically tested. One of the good results arising
from the Employers' Liability Act will be that by selecting
the men of best physique, the working men'and women will
be compelled to give their attention to health matters.

In 1904 I tried to obtain statistics from the above
agencies, but failed. This is a pity, as their statistics
would give much useful information, and would stimulate
public interest in this great question of unnecessary
disease. The editor of Bourne's Insurance Directory has
kindly informed me that about one-sixth of those who
pifer themselves for life assurance are declined — usually
on the ground of family history, previous illness, or
habits. The actual rejections due to disease or weakness
disclosed by the medical examinations are hardly more
than one-twentieth- — probably even less. It would be
instructive to know the number of applicants for annuities
rejected. The actuary of the Star Life OiBce states that
2,000,000 policies for ordinary life business are issued
every year by the life offices in the United Kingdom, and
that the industrial assurance companies issue annually
an additional 22,000,000. Many intending assurers are
examined by their own physicians first •!

According to the statistics of friendly societies — such
as the Oddfellows and Foresters — each member has on
an average twelve days' sickness — "bedfast" and not
"walking" sickness. That the total sickness of these
societies is vastly greater than stated will be evident
when it is known that their "total sickness" is calcu-
lated only from the total sick pay granted to members;
that no sick pay is given to those sick from alcoholic and
venereal diseases ; nor for any illness under four days ; nor

AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL DETERIORATION. 17

after child-birth ; and that so rigid a system of "visitors "
and "cross visitors" is upon the sick member as some-
times to force the member to declare "off" the sick fund
before he is really cured. Further, it is to be observed
that only healthy lives, and those between the ages
of 15 and 45, are admitted to membership; while some
dangerous callings are excluded. Were all ages and
sexes included, I would say that the sick-rate might be
calculated at twenty-four days per annum per member.

Some years ago Sir J. Paget, M.D. , with the aid of
Mr. Sutton, Actuary to the Registry of Friendly Societies,
estimated that in England and Wales, that portion of the
male population between the ages of 14 and 65 years had,
in one year, 9,692,505 weeks' sickness; while the females
between these ages had 10,592,761 weeks' sickness; or
1.314 weeks' sickness per annum per member. Such a
sick-rate means not only a weakening of the physical
health of the members, but it also represents a very heavy
■financial loss. The above weeks' sickness represent a
total of 20,000,000 of weeks' work. Supposing each of
these persons were making one pound per week — an
absurdly low average — here is a gigantic loss of twenty
millions sterling in twelve months alone, and from sick-
ness alone.

From the years 1871 to 1903, no less than 67,596
women died from "puerperal fever," and 130,506 from
"accidents of child-bed," in England and Wales. That
is a total of 198,100 in thirty-two years; a shocking and
unnecessary butchery, and in performing a natural func-
tion. How many were rendered invalids or broken down
in health we cannot say ; but if one is to judge from the
ever-increasing number of hospitals for women, the
number of motherhood-wrecks must be terribly heavy.
This, too, when carrying out a natural 'function. How can
these broken-down women bring forth healthy children ?
It is well known that the above death-rate is unreliable,
as many deaths are not recorded under the above two
headings. The Registrar-General in his Annual Report
for 1903 says: "There is reason to doubt whether the
returns of puerperal fatality are even yet complete."

Further statistics showing the amount of physical

1 8 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

weakening which follows bodily sickness are presented
in the Irish Census Returns, 1901. -These show that in
one day there were 68,862 sick or infirm in that country,
or I in 65 of the total population; 35,588 being "tempor-
arily," and 33,274 "permanently" sick. Of the former,
20,704 were ill in hospitals, and 14,884 at their homes.
There were in England 119,975 permanently and tempor-
arily diseased on one day. The following Statistics which
I have collected show the number of sick persons who
jWere treated during igoi at the voluntary hospitals in the
United Kingdom : —

England and

Wales — 3,438,676 patients, or i in 10.4 of the population
Scotland 321,487 ,, i in 13.8 ,,

Ireland 376,100 ,, iinii.8 ,,

or a total of 4,136,263, or i in 11 of the total population.
I do not suggest that these figures are complete, as they do
not embrace all the voluntary hospitals; nor do I fail to
note that the same patient may be counted twice. As
showing the number of persons who suffered from fevers,
I would point out that 228,460 infectious diseases were
notified in one year.

Referring to the number treated at the Poor Law hos-
pitals, the following shows that 941,957 received treatment
in one year: —

England and Wales 725,146 patients.

Scotland - 87,751 ,,

Ireland - 129,058 ,,

Another plan by which one can call attention to the
fearful amount of physical disease is by estimating the
number of persons sick by the number who die. To cal-
culate the sick-rate from a given disease we take the
mortality of this disease, the average death-rate, and let x
equal the answer. Thus, for example, the number of
persons who died during 1902 in England and Wales from
typhoid fever was 4,149. The death-rate from typhoid is
about 15 per cent, of those attacked, and so it follows that
27,660 persons must have suffered from this one disease.
This fact will be driven home if it be stated in a fina,ncial

AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL DETERIORATION. I9

or "golden calf" or " dollar " form. Taking it that these
27,600 had been each making £1 per week, and that typhoid
fever lasts about ten weeks, here is a total loss of ;^27o,6oo
from sickness alone. This basis of comparison can be ap-
plied to other diseases. Thus, in 1902, 2,464 died from
smallpox, 12,930 from measles, 4,875 from scarlet fever,
7,366 from influenza, 9,805 from whooping-cough, 8,411
from diphtheria, 14,053 from diarrhoea, 46,431 from
pneumonia, and 57,396 from tuberculosis in England.

Farr estimated that the loss to the nation by , the death
of an agricultural labourer at the age of 25 was about
;^246. Reducmg this to a financial basis, it would mean
that if 4000 such men die during the year from typhoid,
that our nation loses about one million sterling.

Perhaps the Annual Reports of the Army and Navy give
a fair idea of the total sickness and physical deterioration
referring to men.

Reference to the Annual Report of the Surgeon-General
of the British Army for 1902 shows that in that year
87,609 recruits were examined, and of this number, 26,913
were rejected as unfit for service, and 60,696 as fit. But
of the fit, 1,597 had to be discharged from the Army
within three months after enlisting. During the year, in
the home army, 4,598 men had to be discharged as unfit;
while from the whole army, home and foreign, 8,869 were
discharged as unfit for further service.

As regards the rejections in 1902 of those wishing to
enter the Army, there was an increase of 26.77 P^"^ 1000
as compared with the previous year. Of recruits • in
England, the rejection rate was 335 per 1000; Scotland,
275; and Ireland, 293. Of the previous occupations of
recruits rejected, 359 per 1000 were artisans, 328 shopmen
and clerks, and 329 labourers.

The following are some of the causes of rejection: —
syphilis, 219; debility, 343 ; defective vision, 3,437; disease
-of heart, 1,518; loss of many teeth, 4,316; varicocele,
1,103; fl^t feet, 1,090; under height, 1,015; under chest
measurement, 4,969; under weight, 1,903. It will be
noted that the largest number of rejections were for de*
fective development — chiefly chest measurement.

When I mention that the minimum chest measurement

3'

20 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

— chest fully expanded— was 33J inches ; weight, 112 lbs.,
and height 5 feet 2 inches, it will be recognized that a
great amount of physical deterioration exists. Nor can
it be contended that the medical examination is severe,
as a reference to the Official Regulations for the Army
Service, and under the " Rules for the Examination of
Recruits," no order is made for the examiners to examine
the urine for kidney disease or diabetes.

It must be noted also that the foregoing statistics would
be grossly misleading if we failed to recognize that they do
not include the total rejections, because all recruits are not
examined by the medical officers. All recruits are first
examined by the recruiting sergeants. It is very unfortunate
that the War Office refuses to publish statistics showing
the number rejected by the sergeants. Why? I have,
in Chapter XVII., referred to the number of soldiers
treated in the Army and the number of sailors in the
Navy for venereal diseases — diseases which work havoc,
not only with these men's physical being, but which
frequently afflict innocent women and children.

During 1903, of 69,553 recruits inspected, 22,382 were
rejected, while 1,022 were found unfit after three months'
service. Compared with 1902, there was an increase of
14.61 per 1000 in the ratio of rejections.

Of English recruits - 340 per 1000 were rejected.

Scottish ,, 331 .. ..

Irish ,, 318 ,, ,,

Of Labourers, servants, and

husbandmen - 349 ,, ,,

Artisans - - - 334

Mechanics - 323 ,, ,,

Shopmen and clerks - 331 ,, ,,

Professional occupations 236 ,, ,,

Boys under 17 years old 172 ,, ,,

Referring to the rejection rate for the Navy, it is greatly
to be deplored that the Admiralty persistently refuse to
publish any statistics, or to supply them to sociologists.
The Earl of Meath has stated that fully fifty per cent,
are rejected. Here is a great public department standing
obstinately in the way of social reformers. Why ? .

AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL DETERIORATION. 21

During 1902, in our Navy, the sailors suffered 1,286,038
days' sickness, or 12.91 days per man; and while with
99,600 men, no less than 3,523 were sick on one day.
In other words, the fighting force was reduced by 3,523
men. In the home army, in 1902, of 93,665 men, 3,901
were on the sick list, each one being sick on an average
15.20 days. Of the Army in India, of 60,540 men, 3,995
were constantly sick, with an average of 24.09 days per
man. Of 254,357 British troops at home and abroad
191,250 were admitted to hospital, while the number
constantly non-effective from sickness was 10,882, the
average number of days' sickness being 16.66 days per
1000 of the strength.

In referring to the physically diseased (physical deterior-
ants) one may divide them into those "permanently" and,
" temporarily" diseased. In the permanent class would be
included all cripples and bodily deformed, the blind and
■deaf (not congenital), the infirm and aged, and those
suffering from incurable physical disease. Old age is,
practically speaking, not a disease, but a natural decay or
•dying. It is estimated that at least three per 1000 of the
population included in the elementary school ages — five
to fourteen years — are cripples. This would give about
124,374 cripples.

As regards the deaf and dumb, the igoi Census shows
as follows : —

Deaf and Dumb. Deaf from Childhood.

England and Wales 15,246 - 6,569

Scotland - - 2,638 - i)074

Ireland - 3,078 2,177

Totals - - 20,962 9,820

As regards the blind, the Census of 1901 shows as
follows : —

From Childhood.
England and Wales 25,317 - 4,621

Scotland - 3»253 492

Ireland - - - 4,253 - 184

Totals - 32,823 5,297

22 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

If we apply the rejection rate of recruits for the Army
as a means of estimating the number of physically
diseased or weak, we arrive at the following figures : —
The rejection rate was i in 2J. To avoid any approach to
exaggeration, I estimate it at i in 3, and apply this to
that portion of the United Kingdom — males and females —
between the marriageable ages of 15 and 45 years. The
number in this population was 21,355,331 persons in 1901,
and consequently the number of physical deteriorants
would be 7,118,443 persons. It will be noted that I do
not include these under 15 and over 45 years of age.

The following table would thus give us approximately
the number of physically diseased and crippled in the
United Kingdom : —

Table I.

No. of cripples (not included in the total of

Table I.) - - - - 124,376

Deaf on Census day, excluding deaf from

childhood - - 11,138

Blind on Census day, excluding blind from

childhood - - - - 27,526

Physical deteriorants at 3 per 1000, between

the ages of 15 and 45 - 7,118,443

Total .^- - 7,157.107 ,

The population of the United Kingdom being in igoi
41,458,721, this shows that on that day about i in 5 of
the population was physically affected with some tem-
porary or permanent physical illness. Taking these
statistics with the total number of mental degenerates
mentioned in Chapter IV., we may take it that about i in
4 of the population was physically or mentally affected on
Census day. Not a healthy stock with which to beget
healthy offspring !

Disease is more deadly than war, and more physical
deterioration follows disease than war. The daily papers
publish a statement to the effect that 25,000 persons have
been killed in war. Horror is expressed ! But when the
same people are told that 535,538^persons have died in

AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL DETERIORATION. 23

England in twelve months, the information is treated as
*' stale news " and as something requiring no further
notice. And when the same unthinking and asinine
souls are told that physical disease is the cause of a large
amount of mental disease, they hide their crass ignorance
by doubting this fact. The greatest asset which our
nation has is physical health, and not wealth. " National
health is national wealth," and " the first wealth is
health." Herbert Spencer has put my whole contention
in a nut-shell when he says, " To be a good animal is the
first requisite to success in life, and to be a nation of good
animals is the first condition of national prosperity."
Lord Beaconsfield says — " The public health is the founda-
tion on which repose the happiness of the people and the
power of a country. The care of the public health is the
first duty of a statesman." I have always contended that
it is of more importance to have a population physically
fit than intellectually at a high level. The number of
physically diseased in this country to-day is fearful to
contemplate. To lessen the sick-rate and the physically-
diseased rate is of prime importance.

Suggestion. — Therefore I have proposed that a system
of free medical aid be given to all those whose income is"
under ;^8oo per annum. A public tax should be levied
and district medical officers should be appointed to treat,
free of cost, all those qualified for aid. Such a system
would lessen the present rate of sickness by 50 per cent.
At present we have free State medical aid for the Army,
Navy, police. Post Office, telegraph, mercantile marine,
■lunatics, criminals. Poor Law, voluntary hospitals, muni-
cipal fever hospitals, vaccination, reformatory and industrial
homes. Why not act upon the saying — Salus populi
suprema est lex, and remember that from a corrupt body
of men and women no " eood fruit " can come ?

CHAPTER IV.

THE PRESENT AMOUNT OF MENTAL DEGENERACY.

" Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?"

— Old Book.

There are various ways by which we can arrive at a fair
estimate of the number of mental degenerates in the
United Kingdom. One is by taking the last Census
Returns (1901) and extracting from these the total number
of such persons as recorded on one day — Census Day.
The other is by studying the various annual reports of the
Lunacy Commissioners, Prison Commission, Reformatory
Homes, and such-like institutions.

According to the Fifty-ninth Annual Report of the
Commissioners in Lunacy, the number of persons in England
and Wales who were oiEcially known to be under care
as duly certified msa.ns on January ist, 1905, was 119,829,
this being 2,630 in excess of the number recorded on
the same day in 1904.1 That is, i in every 285 of the
population was certified to be insane. In 1896 the pro-
portion was I in 319. According to the Forty-seventh
Apnual Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, the
number of persons in Scotland who were officially known
to be under care (exclusive of insane persons kept at
home by their natural guardians) certified as insane on
the ist of January 1905 was 17,241, this being 347 in
excess of the number on the same day in 1904.

According to the Fifty-fourth Annual Report of the
Inspectors of Lunatics, the number of persons in Ireland
who were known to be under care as duly certified insane
on January 1st, 1905, was 22,966, this being an increase
of 202 on the previous year. According to the Census
Returns in 1851 the number of insane was i in 657 of the
population; in 1901, i in 178.

These reports therefore show that on January ist, 1905,
there were 160,036 officially notified insane in the United
Kingdom. If we now turn to the statistics as given in

' In January 1906 the number certified had increased to 121,979.
24

PRESENT AMOUNT OF MENTAL DEGENERACY. 2$

the Census Returns, we find that the number of mental
degenerates on Census Day 1901 in the United Kingdom
was as follows : —

Table II.

Insane - - - • - 170,898

Criminals of various kinds ^ - - - 22,244

Deaf and dumb from birth - - 9,822

Blind from childhood - - 5,297

Inebriates in homes - ... 609

Inmates of reformatory and industrial homes 34,015
Epileptics, estimated at i per 1000 of the

population - - - 62,187
Feeble-minded, estimated at i per cent, of
the population between the ages of 5

and 14 years . - - 88,346

Vagrants relieved by Poor Law - 11 ,847

Tramps and footpads - - 18,242

Public prostitutes, estimated at - 60,000

Total - 483.507

Population of United Kingdom on Census

Day 41,458,721

Number of mental degenerates to popu-
lation - - I in 85

Probable number - - i in 50

The above table is very incomplete, and for the following
reasons : —

The number of insane includes only publicly recorded
cases. Many do not know how to fill in a census paper ;
many mothers will not enter their children as idiots ; the
"borderland" cases are not included, nor many of the
"backward or defective"; nor does it include alcoholics,
drug habituis, nor the highly neurotic who frequently
beget degenerates, nor the thousands mentally diseased,
in hospitals for diseases of the brain or in the "infirm"
wards of our workhouses, nor the large number of
undetected criminals. The public should understand
that there is a marked difference between being insane
from the medical standpoint and that from the legal

26 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

Sir J. C. Browne, the Lord Chancellor's Visitor in
Lunacy, says — "There are, no doubt, persons . . . who
are of unsound mind, and iii some respects socially
dangerous, who remain uncertified and are generally
regarded as uncertifiable. . . . The main reason why
the persons referred to . . . are not certified and placed
under control for their own protection and that of others
is that sanity and insanity shade into each other by very
fine gradations, and that it is impossible to say where, in
a legal sense, the exact frontier line is to be drawn.
Medical men and lawyers will never, I think, entirely
agree as to the position of that frontier line."

It will be noticed that the number of insane differs when
studied from the Census Returns and the Lunacy Com-
missioners' statistics. This is partly owing to the fact
that the Census takes place generally during March, and
the other refers to January ist. Further, the insane
known to the Commissioners must differ from the insane
known to those who fill in the Census paper. As a matter
of fact, the Census Returns showed 32,992 more insane
than did the reports of the Lunacy Commissioners. In
order to obtain reliable statistics, I would suggest that
it be made compulsory upon all persons called in to
treat, or to attend to, or to care for degenerates, to
notify the Lunacy Commissioners in each division of the
United Kingdom the name, age, address, and mental con-
dition of such degenerates, thus following the plan in
force under the Notification of Infectious Diseases Act.

Of criminals, the number is perhaps excessive. The
figures suggest the question — Would it not give better
results if we ceased to use the word " criminal " and used
some other, such as "degenerate"? Judges, juries, and the
thinking portion of the public must frequently ask, them-
selves — Where does criminality end and insanity begin?
During 1903, 456 criminals in English prisons were found
to be "weak-minded," and 164 "insane," 65 of these
being so on admission and 21 within one month after.
In Ireland 53 were insane, 43 when committed. In Scot-
land 51 were insane, 41 when committed ; while 58 when
liberated required asylum treatment (see Annual Report,
Prison Commissioners). It follows that many are sent

PRESENT AMOUNT OF MENTAL DEGENERACY. 2/

to prison who should have been sent to an asylum. The
failure of punishment to cure many "criminals" tends
to show that the "criminal," often being a degenerate,
cannot be truly cured.

According to Judicial Statistics, vol. i., there were in
England and Wales, during 1902, no less than 4,320
"habitual criminals" at large, 3,688 of these being
thieves. I have elsewhere referred to the class of
"educated criminals" brought out by our system of
compulsory education — a class who before were quietly
left to die out, or to occupy the position only fitted for
them. In a few years we shall have a great increase of
educated criminals. They will not be of the old highway-
man style, but will study their work and develop a
cunning which will drive us to believe that the education
of borderland degenerates is a national evil. I am even
opposed to the education of the confirmed criminal,
confirmed tramp, or confirmed inebriate.

Of deaf and dumb I include only 9,822 out of a total of
20,960. The Census Returns for Ireland show that in
one census the deaf-mute was the first-hovn child ; while
in the census of 1901, of 1,788 deaf-mutes, the deaf-mute
was th.s first-horn in 439 cases and the last-born in 441.
In the 1891 census the deaf-mute was the first-born in
530 families and the last-horn in 431 families. Of the total
of 1,788, 967 were males and 821 females. In 284 families
there were two mutes in a family ; in 142 families three
mutes in a family ; and in thirty-nine instances four mutes
in a family. In 170 instances the parents of the mutes
were related before marriage, and of this number ninety-
seven had one mute in the family, thirty-nine two mutes,
twenty-three three mutes, seven four mutes, and one five
mutes.

Of blind from birth I include only 5,297 out of a total of
32,823.

Of inebriates the number stated is too low, as I include
only inebriates in institutions. The Registrar-General
states that in 1902, 2,784 persons in England and Wales
■died from "alcoholism." The number of deaths has been
alleged to be nearer 60,000 per annum.

No reliable death certification can be obtained until a

28 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

law orders doctors to send the certificate of the cause of
death direct to the registrar of deaths, and a certificate of
^he fact of death and the identity of the deceased to be
given to the relatives. (See my Evidence before Select
Committee, House of Commons, on Death Registration,

1893-)

Of children in reformatory and industrial schools :
"juvenile criminals. "^It is to be noted that all these
have been convicted in court of an offence punishable
with penal servitude or imprisonment. They are under
fourteen and sixteen years of age. We send them to
prison, the prison in this case being termed "school."
They are termed "criminals" in the volume fudicial
Statistics. Their parents are probably degenerates. Dur-
ing 1903, of 1,340 committed to reformatory "schools,"
452 had been convicted once, 218 twice, 84 thrice, and
56 four times and upwards ; of 5,073 discharged from
" schools " in three years, 26 per cent, were re-convicted.
Since the "schools" were established, 21,999 boys from
these reformatory and industrial prisons have been sent to
sea in the mercantile marine. Are not many of the
mutinies and murders on board ship due to these " cured "
degenerates ? Or are they likely to beget a healthy off-
spring? These figures do not include those sent to the
truant schools, or to the day industrial schools.

As regards epileptics, many contend that the number
stated is too low, some estimating it at 2 per 1000.
Heredity is frequently a cause of epilepsy, showing that
epileptics do not abstain from sexual intercourse.

As regards ^^ mentally defective'' sxiA. " backward" child-
ren, not idiots nor imbeciles, but who cannot be taught
by the usual methods in force at elementary schools, the
number is estimated at 88,346. Mr. R. A. Bray, L.C.C.,
lately estimated this number at 105,000, of whom only
one-third could be made self-supporting. These "back-
ward " children are, I contend, the most dangerous class
when we consider "the coming race." Their degeneracy
is often difficult to detect, perhaps latent. They cannot
be " cured," because their defect is congenital. It is mis-
leading to speak of "schools" for them, because only a
few can be even partially educated, while the many lapse.

PRESENT AMOUNT OF MENTAL DEGENERACY. 29

They may be well dressed, physically set up, and made to
conduct themselves with outward decorum ; but they are
a "faked" class, and probably would not have been so
classified were not medical specializing carried to such
absurd extremes. One can fancy the future ' ' high-grade
degenerate " pleading as an excuse for his wrong action
that his " obsession " was due to a " neurotic taint," and
that the crime was really owing to "atavistic tendency."
The "educated" criminal is the most dangerous of
criminals. Mr. Justice Grantham had before him a pri-
soner who had been convicted several times for forgery,
fraud, and company-promoting. The prisoner pleaded
that he "was a drug slave, that cocaine had partially
paralyzed his will power, and he had been drawn into
the ramifications of financial deceit." "This class of
' educated crimes,'" the judge said, "practically mono-
polized the Crown Court yesterday." Just as it is the
slightly marked case of infectious disease which often
causes the most widespread epidemic, so it will be found
that these " backward" children are, from the procreation
standpoint, the most dangerous to the nation. Every
possible effort must be made to make these products of
our negligence useful workers. I deny them nothing,
except the right to beget offspring, for here they are
incapable of taking an active part in the greatest and
farthest-reaching of all human duties — the creating of
healthy lives, the begetting of useful citizens. As empire-
builders they are decidedly "jerry." Barr, in his work
Mental Defectives, says — " He who is born into this sad
heritage leaves hope behind. We cannot cure what is not
disease, but defect; and that which the cradle rocks the
spade will cover." I would further contend that the
"educated" "backward" child will excel more in crime
than will the uneducated degenerate, the former being the
" faked " school-product.

Referring to public prostitutes, I contend that they are
degenerates, composed of sexual perverts, drunkards, con-
firmed loafers, thieves, and those so degraded as to prefer
to make their living by hiring out their sexual organs, and
not by honest toil. The number is estimated at 60,000
merely. In one year the police in the United Kingdom

30 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

took proceedings against 14,907. Some years ago it was
estimated that there were 12,000 to 15,000 prostitutes in
New York City, 50,000 in Berlin, 30,000 in Vienna, and
30,000 in Paris.

As regards vagrants, tramps, footpads, •wandering and
"harmless" (?) lunatics, the Annual Report of the
Inspector of Constabulary, Scotland, shows that on one
day, 22nd June 1902, there were 8,252 vagrants, beggars,
and poor on tramp. I take no objection to these being
helped, but they are a grave danger to the nation, as they
are frequently the cause of illegitimacy and degenerate
offspring.

Sexual Perverts. — These form a stratum of degenerate
humanity who have sunk to the lowest depth, and a class
whom one would wish to pass over in silence, but that
honest thinkers know they have been created by the mis-
deeds of men and women — some great law of nature
having been broken. They are a phase of social wreckage,
and must be considered if we wish to secure a real cure.
Those who refuse to consider them are moral cowards,
and those who content themselves merely by "calling
names " almost debase themselves to the low level of these
degenerates. Medical and social science tell us that we
must get at the causes of degeneracy, and fearlessly look
for the causes. These derelicts, or foul sores of society,
are deserving of study, just as are those who suffer from
any loathsome physical disease, such as smallpox, leprosy,
venereal diseases, or scabies. As it is the duty of the
night-soil man to enter and to clean out sewers and refuse
heaps, so it is, unhappily, the solemn duty of physicians to
survey these poor products of mad and diseased humanity
— this scum of our civilization deserving our pity; for I
take it they have been more sinned against than sinning.
If we would only recognize that most sexual crimes are
due to mental or physical diseases, we would soon stand
upon firm and trusty foundation. Some years ago a bright
literary character made havoc with his life. But the post-
mortem showed a tumour pressing on his brain, thus
causing his obsession. His parents also were markedly
neurotic and perhaps erotic. Lately a titled person died
and left a poor career, but the physician knew that he had

PRESENT AMOUNT OF MENTAL DEGENERACY. 3 1

been sexually deformed from birth. At the Liverpool
Assizes, December 1904, Mr. Justice Phillimore sentenced
a male to fifteen years' penal servitude for sexual assault
upon an infant five weeks old ! I inquired particularly into
this man's history, and found that he was thirty-six years
old, had had a severe sunstroke in India, and that his
mother was in an asylum. This male, if sane, must have
known that there are many prostitutes in Liverpool whose
fees vary from sixpence upwards. Max Nordau says that
"the erotomaniac degenerate stands in the same position
to the females as a dipsomaniac to intoxicating drinks."
Who can explain the abducting of a child of ten to fourteen
years by a man to be used for sexual purposes, unless we
recognize this male as a sexual pervert? He is of the
class who support the " Swami " worshippers. Those who
have studied the relation of physical disease to sexual
perversion know the grave importance of the subject.
Perhaps "Jack the Ripper" has shown us our ignorance
of sexual disease and degeneracy to as great an extent as
has "Jane Cakebread " in the subject of inebriety occurring
in cases of mental defect. Acton relates the case of an
old man suffering from such extreme satyriasis that he
was lost to all sense of shame. After his death a small
tumour was found on his brain. Injuries to the brain,
especially to the hind brain, and injuries to the spine are a
cause of sexual perversion. Some diseases, such as con-
sumption, cause intense sexual desire; hence the early
marriage and amorous nature of these physical de-
teriorants. Hysteria and nymphomania are but a name
for th,e symptoms, while the removal of the ovaries or
uterus often give marked relief to those diseased. The
surgeon knows that the elderly man with enlarged pros-
tate soon loses his uncontrollable sexual desire when he
has had his prostate removed; while the poor demented
creatures who slink up back entries and display their
sexual organs to children, or attack young girls, are as
well known to the police as are the habitual inebriates and
habitual criminals. The negro is seldom content with
sexual intercourse with the white woman, but culminates
his sexual furor by killing the woman, sometimes taking
out her womb and eating it. If the United States of

32 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

America people would cease to prostitute their high mental
qualities and recognize this negro as a sexual pervert, it
would reflect greater credit upon them; and if they would
sterilize this mentally afflicted creature instead of torturing
him, they would have a better right to pose as sound
thinkers and social reformers. I have before applied the
term degenerates to prostitutes, and I think this opinion
is backed up by the statement of Mrs. Ruspini, Secretary
to the Church Penitentiary Association, where she says,
when speaking of the feeble-minded, among 79,000 prosti-
tutes some 30 per cent, are feeble-minded, and "these
cases of feeble minds and weak wills are a danger to the
community. However carefully trained and taught during
their two years' stay in a House of Mercy, they are sure to
fall back into their old lives of sin, from their inability to
resist the temptation around them." I would here add that
notice should be taken of the fact that many of the "homes"
for reclaiming " prostitutes " are now bringing the direst
discredit upon domestic service by sending out their re-
claimed (?) females to such .employment. These often
seduce the young boys and teach them debauched tricks.
If medicine, law, dentistry, or the Church, or any other em-
ployment, were recruited from Industrial, Reformatory, or
Penitentiary Homes, we know what this would mean.

During 1902, in England and Wales 19,746 persons
were tried, and 16,204 found guilty of sexual offences —
including rape, indecent assaults, prostitution, etc. How
many cases escaped detection? Perhaps four times as
many as the above.

These are sexual offences as brought to the notice of
the police, the figures being extracted from the Judicial
Statistics (criminal) for England, Scotland, and Ireland. I
think no one would suggest that the persons guilty of the
above offences had " been in their senses."

The study of the sexual nerves and sexual centres in
man's system is yet incomplete. Dr. Lauder Brunton and
others have devoted considerable study to the subject.
We do know, however, that impressions made locally
{peripheral irritation) upon the sexual organs are trans-
mitted by sensory nerves to the spinal cord and to that
enlargement in the lumbar portion of the cord — the lumbar

PRESENT AMOUNT OF MENTAL DEGENERACY. 33

genital centre — that these impressions, or irritations, are
reflected to the sexual organs; that the blood-vessels of
these organs are relaxed, and that therefore erection
follows. In this way we explain the erections which occur
in boys with long foreskins ; or by the irritating substances
under the uncircumcised ; by enlarged prostate; and by
the full bladder in the early morning. We further know
that there must be a "genital centre" in the brain;
nerves passing through this and up and down through
the spinal cord. Eckhardt proved the presence of these
fibres by stimulating various portions of the brain such as
the crura, pons, and upper cervical region of the cord
(medulla) so causing erections. Thus is explained the
transmission of sexual thoughts ; thoughts sometimes
caused by stimulation of the nerves of smell, sight, and
hearing, and the following erection with desire. Thus
is explained the transmission along these nerves, of
thoughts, smells, sights, etc., which do not stimulate but
which inhibit erections, such as disgusting sights, disgust-
ing smells, mental fear of impotence, and heavy mental
exertion.

Applying these facts to diseased conditions of the brain,
we know that if a tumour or other disease stimulates the
"genital centre" in the brain or cord, it will cause erec-
tions and sexual desire of an intense kind, such as cannot
be controlled by feeble will power, and that thus the
sufferer is actually driven to act in a .way he would not
act were his will power perfect. The irritation of the
spinal cord by such diseases as locomotive ataxy, general
paralysis of the insane, and other spinal diseases and
injuries, probably accounts for erections which frequently
accompany these conditions. Therefore if a person has a
small tumour pressing upon the brain, this will as per-
sistently "ring up" the sexual thoughts and sexual
desires and sexual actions as will the finger pressing on
the button of the electric-bell system keep the bell
ringing.

I have obtained numerous statistics from special
■sources which more than bear out the above statements.
In one case a man was convicted seven times for exposing
his person, another ten timesj and another thirty-one

34 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

■times. The following official statement shows the mental
derangement occurring in such persons, in one town in the
United Kingdom : —

(i) " On 3rd November 1888, a man, aged forty-eight,
was arrested in the city on a charge of indecently exposing
his person to a number of children, and on the 6th of the
same month he was certified to be insane and handed over
to the parochial authorities."

(2) "On 4th November 1902, a man, aged thirty-five,
was arrested on a charge of rape, and on 6th June 1903
he was found to be insane, and ordered to be confined
during his Majesty's pleasure."

(3) " On 6th June 1904, a man, aged thirty-four years,
was remitted to the sheriff for having indecently exposed
his person to a number of young girls. On the date of
remittal he was certified to be insane and sent to an
asylum. He was subsequently liberated as being sane,
and afterwards convicted of a similar offence and sent sixty
days to prison."

(4) "On ist July 1904, a man forty years of age was
convicted of indecently assaulting a woman, and fined
^5 or thirty days' imprisonment. Again, on August 6th
of the same year he was convicted of indecently ex-
posing his person to women, for which offence he was
fined ^5 or thirty days' imprisonment. Subsequently
he was certified to be insane and committed to an
asylum."

{5) " On 14th July 1905, a man thirty-two years of age
was arrested on a charge of indecently exposing his per-
son, but as he was certified by the casualty surgeon to be of
weak mind, proceedings were dropped."

(6) ' ' On 26th April 1898, a youth was, before the sheriff's
court, convicted of gross indecency with a male person
and sentenced to two months' imprisonment. Again, on.
24th November he was charged, along with a Frenchman,
with gross indecency committed on a number of boys in
a family home, but was taken as a witness against the.
Frenchman and liberated. On 26th December he com-
mitted suicide by drowning, supposed while suffering from
insanity."

At another city, five men were convicted of indecent

PRESENT AMOUNT OF MENTAL DEGENERACY. 35

exposure twenty times, and given three months' imprison-
ment for each offence.

"One man, who has within the past four years been
three times convicted of indecently exposing his person to
young children, admitted to me that he had no control
over himself at certain periods, and that he is compelled
to perform and speak indecently at such times.

" Another, who was sentenced to three years' imprison-
ment in October 1904, for carnally knowing a girl under
thirteen years of age (further similar charges not gone
into), was of very low mental capacity and did not at all
realize the gravity of his offence.

'•The third case, that of a prisoner sentenced to two
years' hard labour in January 1905, for attempted know-
ledge of a girl under thirteen years of age, was also one to
which mental weakness was exhibited, although in this
case the prisoner's actions may have been somewhat influ-
enced by heavy drinking.

' ' Having carefully studied this subject for over twenty
years, I am satisfied that the persons charged, or com-
plained of, with sexual offences against males and females,
are not sane on this subject, though, as a rule, fairly
normal on others."

' ' Both men are of extremely low intellect, especially the
man A, who is a strongly built, bandy-legged, stout man,
with a low retreating forehead and the expression of a
gorilla. I consider him a dangerous animal. You will
see that he was flogged in 1903 for his habitual offence,
which he repeated again (probably many times). It is
hard to say therefore whether this punishment is detri-
mental or otherwise; but I think, as a rule, it is."

I would suggest that the chiefs of police, in presenting
their annual reports, be instructed to publish in such
reports the photographs of sexual perverts convicted in
their district, with a short summary of their history and
family history.

The above cases show the extent of our present means
for breeding a woeful total of degenerates — a total which
is increasing yearly, and which we yet allow to contami-
nate the stream of human happiness.

CHAPTER V.

THE COST OF THE UPKEEP OF DETERIORANTS AND
DEGENERATES.

•The following figures, which I have extracted from many-
official reports, show the expenditure during the year 1902
upon the upkeep of degenerates : —

Table IV.
Asylums —

England and Wales

Scotland - - - - -

Ireland - . . .

- ;£2,97S.425
587,422
634,200

Prisons —

England and Wales

Scotland - - - - -

Ireland - - - -

625,434

"4.743
94.656

Certified Inebriate Reformatories —
England and Wales - - -

■ 22,019

State Inebriate Reformatories —
England and Wales

17,666

Reformatory ''Schools" —

Great Britain - - - -
Ireland - . . .

133,002
13,705

Industrial ''Schools"—
Great Britain

Ireland - - - -
40 Homes and Orphanages

426,916
161,519
510,211

Police —

England and Wales -
Scotland - - - - -
Ireland r - .- - -

- 4,706,026

534.447

- J, 521,626

;^I3,o8l,OI9

Thirteen millions sterling expended every twelve months
upon mental degenerates and the physically unfit is a

36

COST OF UPKEEP OF DETERIORANTS. 37

-heavy burden upon the taxpayer, and • this is not made
easier to bear by recalling the fact that each year brings a
higher expenditure. All this expenditure upon the insane,
it must be noted, is unproductive expenditure. It is
absolutely "dead" money, no one receiving any benefit.
Only double this sum is spent upon our army, and it is
almost ten times as much as is expended upon our Volun-
teer force. Again, it is to be noted that we spend almost
the same sum upon degenerates as we spend upon educa-
tion in the elementary and secondary grades! To the
above total may be added one-quarter of the expenditure
under the Poor Law — that is, ;^3, 816,000, and ;^i ,945,500
upon voluntary hospitals. The amount of physical disease
treated in hospitals, municipal fever hospitals, army and
naval hospitals, and in the payment of judicial officials for
the trial of criminals, must cost the country an immense
sum yearly. I would calculate that the total annual ex-
penditure upon degenerates is not less than ;^35,ooo,ood.

According to the Lunacy Commissioners, the average
weekly cost of maintaining each insane person in the county
and borough asylums in 1904 (inclusive of repairs, additions
and alterations) was —

s. d.
In county asylums ----- 10 if
In borough „ . - . . u 3I

Average ------ 10 5

The Scottish Commissioners state that the expenditure
per " pauper" patient per annum is —

£ s.

d.

In asylums - - - . -

27 II

In poorhouses

19 18

7

In private dwellings - . .

18

3

Average cost per patient

25 18

3

They also report, as regards the gradual growth of
expenditure, " that the expenditure on patients in asylums
has, increased from ;^i64,ooo to ;^289,620, or 77 per cent.;
in the lunatic wards of poorhouses, from ;^i3,793 to
;^22,i996, or 67 per cent.; in private dwellings, from
;^22,554 to ;^47,392, or no per cent.; and that the whole

38 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

expenditure increased from ;^2o6,S36 to ;^37o>474> or 78
per cent. Mark — so great an increase in expenditure and
no decrease of insanity.

It is well to recollect that the Lunacy Act defines a
" pauper" lunatic as a person who is maintained partly or
entirely out of the public- funds. Therefore when one
reads of the increase of "pauper" insane it is well to
remember this legal definition.

In Ireland the average yearly cost per insane person is
about ;^23 I2S. lod. No doubt the difference in the
averages in the three countries is partly due to the different
items classified under "expenditure." Would it be too
much to ask that the three Lunacy Boards take steps to
adopt one uniform plan of income and expenditure ? Such
a plan would facilitate just comparisons.

If we adopt the prevalent ideal of lifelong imprisonment,
segregation, or immurement for all those who are held to
be incapable of begetting healthy children — that is, the
highest and most essential national duty, the cost of such a
plan would not be far off ;^5o,ooo,ooo yearly. If, again,
procreation is of no practical consideration, or we take for
our guide that of a Lunacy Committee who held that a
person, although insane, is not a danger to our nation, and
need not be detained in any asylum if he or she be
"harmless" and has no homicidal or suicidal mania, then
it follows that if all these be released as " recovered " we
shall have a larger bill to pay for race inefficiency and race
degeneracy.

The expenditure upon the insane is also increased owing
to the fact that these inmates of asylums who are dis-
charged " on trial " are allowed a sum per week equal to
the average cost of such patient when in the asylum — about
IIS. to X2S. per week. In Lancashire the maintenance
rate is about gs. iid. per week. The Lunacy Act, 1890,
also empowers asylum authorities to " board out" with the
relatives or friends of the patient certain of the insane,
and hpre also a grant may be given.

Let us here recollect that we have now no colony of
Virginia or of Australia upon which we at one time
"dumped" our stock of idiots and criminals, and that only
recently America and all the British Colonies have made

COST OF UPKEEP OF DETERIORANTS. 39

special laws to prevent the immigration of mental and
physical degenerates.

As showing how the upkeep of even one insane person
burdens the public, an illustration can be obtained from the
statement that one lunatic had been supported for 55 years
by the Warrington Union at a total cost to the ratepayers
of ;^i,300. This may not be the total cost, as the person
may have been married, or the Commissioners may have,
from time to time, let him out as a " recovered" patient,
and so to beget children — as a pastime !

CHAPTER VI.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY :
■OUR HEALTH-DESTROYING SYSTEM OF INTER-MARRIAGE
WITH, AND INTER-BREEDING FROM LUNATICS.

" The hand thatWRECKS the cradle WRECKS the nation."

Perhaps one of the best ways by which one could call
attention to the dire results that follow our permitting
the inter-marriage of lunatics and idiots, and the produc-
tion of more lunatics and idiots by these degenerates,
would be to print in large letters on the "permit to marry"
of such, the words—

Notice. — This way to the Lunatic, and Idiot

Asylum.

According to the Census Returns — for here again the

Annual Reports of the Commissioners in Lunacy fail to

supply these statistics — the number of lunatics, their sex,

and their condition as to marriage was as follows : —

Table V. — Number of Lunatics.

Country. Males. Females. Total.

England and Wales 37,583 46,189 83,772

Scotland - - - 6,468 7,200 13,668

Ireland - 10,213 9,621 19,834

Totals - 54,264 63,010 117,274

The following table shows the number married, un-
married, and widowed : —

Table VI.

Country. \

males.

FEMALES.

Married.

Unmarried.

Widowed.

Married.

Unmarried.

Widowed.

England and
Wales -
Scotland
Ireland

Totals

11,819
1,488
1,808

22,983
4,615
7,984

2,781
36s
341

15,747
1,843
2,137

23,882
4,400
6,530

6,560

957
954

15,115

35,582

3,487

19,727

34,812

8,471

From this latter table we therefore see that on one day,
in the United Kingdom, there were 46,800 married and
widowed lunatics. It would be most instructive to know

40

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 4I

how many children have been begotten by those lunatics.
Surely it would be an easy matter for the Lunacy Com-
missioners to order that each asylum management ask
this question of the relatives of each lunatic admitted.
We would then have further proof — if further proof be'
needed — that we have in idiots and lunatics vast breeding
beds, and that these are daily adding to the yearly
increasing number of the insane.

I do not suggest that all these lunatics were insane before
marriage ; but it is not too much to suggest and to
demand that those who have been insane should not
be married, and those who have been discharged from
asylums shall not be permitted to beget children. The
statistics presented in Tables V. and VI., VII. and VIII.
show that on one day alone we had 65,700 married or
widowed, idiots,, imbeciles, feeble-minded, and lunatics in
the United Kingdom, many of them engaged and, by us,
encouraged in the, to us, apparently pleasant function <&
begetting degenerate offspring, in, fouling the stream of
human life, and in adding to the sum-total of insanity.
Yet we unctiously profess surprise when lamenting the
wide national deterioration. ■ The statistics further show
that a great many idiots and lunatics marry, while the
male and female idiots marrying are about equal in
number. On the other hand, it is instructive to note that
there were 9,596 more married female lunatics than males.
Why is this ? Has the female degenerate greater power
in hiding her defect than has the male ? Is the strain of
married life more trying to the female than to the male ?
A woman has suggested to me as one reason "that men
are such fools when selecting a wife ; that the petticoat,
financial and social considerations guide his choice more
than does the question — Is the woman physically and
mentally strong, and will she be a good helpmate and a
good mother?" The male who marries a face, and the
female who marries the bank-book, have a bad time
ahead, and a worse for their children — if any. Certainly
no animal shows such utter want of common-sense, such
utter disregard of the law of natural selection, as does the
higher animal, man, when selecting a good mate. In his
pre-human days he must have acted differently.^

■^ In the begetting of offspring, personal responsibility as regards the
health of the future child is not given one moment's thought to by 2 per
1000 of men, or .oper 1000 of women.

CHAPTER VII.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY :
OUR DISGUSTING SYSTEM OF INTER-MARRIAGE WITH,
AND INTER-BREEDING FROM IDIOTS, IMBECILES, EPI-
LEPTICS, AND FEEBLE-MINDED — " MENTALLY BACKWARD
children" — CAUSES OF IDIOCY.

' ' Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? Not one."

— Old Book.

In Chapters III. and IV. I have called attention to the
fearful total of physical and mental diseases. If this total
of diseased humanity were afflicted with sterility, the
present sad conditions would disappear. But, unfortu-
nately, fertility is common among degenerates. They are,
in fact, " the weeds in the garden," and have an enormous
power of reproduction. Their reproduction rate would be
greater still were it not for the fact that a large number of
idiots and imbeciles are imprisoned for life. Further on I
shall call attention to a proposal which I made public in
1903 for operating upon these and other degenerates, so
that they could not perpetuate their species. Of all the
depressing sights seen by the physician none is so intensely
humiliating to our civilization and Christianity than is the
Asylums for Idiots and Imbeciles. They are to be pitied,
and it is somewhat of a consolation that the onlooker
suffers more than do these poor wrecks and products of
our blatant and boasting civilization. They make one feeL
it is a pity that, when the higher apes "crossed the
rubicon," so as to become men and women, they " burned
their boats," and so prevented our degenerate samples of
mankind from reverting to the monkey stage of evolution.
Such atavism would, however, be hard upon the apes, and
it is better that we have to take care of these products of
our own misdeeds.

It is unfortunate that the Commissioners in Lunacy do
not classify the insane into idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded,
epileptic, and lunatics. Perhaps they will do so in some
future report. Consequently, I have had to take the

42

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 43

figures from the Census Returns. The following table
shows the number of idiots, imbeciles, and feeble-minded,
and the number married, widowed, and single on Census
Day in the United Kingdom, 1901 : —

Country.

England and Wales

Scotland

Ireland

Table VII.

Males.

- 24,480

3,246

2,946

Females.
34,402

3,377
2,270

Total.

48,882
6,623
5,216

Totals

60,721

30,672 30,049

The following table shows the number of unmarried,
married, and widowed idiots, imbeciles, and feeble-minded
in Table II.:—

Table VIII.

Country.

MALES.

FEMALES.

Unmarried.

Married.

Widowed.

Unmarried.

Married.

Widowed.

England and
Wales -
Scotland
Ireland

Totals -

21,188
136

2,057
3,040
2,819

1,235
68

50

20,153
146
119

1,632
2,965
2,028

2,617
266
123

21,401

7,916

1,353

20,418

6,625

3.006

From this latter table we therefore see that on one day
in the United Kingdom there were 18,900 married and
widowed idiots, imbeciles, and feeble-minded. In the
sacred name of Humanity one asks. Why were those
idiots joined in marriage ? This question is not diificult to
answer, because these poor sufferers have been bom so.
With the lunatic it is different, as he or she may have
been born healthy. Can nothing be done to prevent the
clergy and registrars from joining these degenerates in
marriage? And can nothing be done so as to prevent
them from begetting offspring, and so cursing other
children with their blemishes? What is the good, even
should the public supply money to build asylums for idiots
and imbeciles, if we do not stop the increase of these

44 RACE culture; or, race suicide?

degenerates ? Our present inaction savours somewhat of
the person who tried to keep the tide back with a brooms
This is an action for which we shall be justly scouted and
sneered at by our successors. .

Some months ago a notice appeared in the daily press
notifying the joining irj marriage of two deaf mutes. If
there be one thing we are certain of, it is the fact that deaf
mutes beget deaf mutes. Clouston says — " Ordinary
deaf-muteism is closely allied to idiocy, and is one of the
hereditary neuroses. To me it is a physiological sin that
marriages between such persons should be legal."
Strachan says — "It is true that deaf-muteism is not
transmitted in a majority of cases from parent to child.
The family defect which shows in the child as congenital
deafness may be met with in the ancestors or collateral
relatives as idiocy, insanity, blindness, epilepsy, scrofula,
physical deformity, or the like; for these are but the
various outward signs of that general tendency to de-
generation which makes such families." I have elsewhere
referred to the statistics bearing upon deaf mutes, as given
in the Irish Census Returns — statistics which should also
be given in the English and Scottish Census Reports.
Dr. A. G. Bell, of Washington, says — " Philanthropy in
this country is doing everything possible to encourage
marriage among deaf mutes. Unless this system of
management is changed, we shall certainly have a deaf
variety of the human race." It may be asked. Why does
not some Christian community establish a stud wherein to
breed deaf mutes ? But why propose ? Is not the " stud "
already in existence ? It is ; but we are not honest enough
to call it a stud. We "keep the thing dark," and so,
solemnly state — and lie — that the thing does not exist!
Poor irrational humanity!

Yet, although the above facts are well established,
different religious denominations compel their clergy to
join these poor degenerates as man and wife; the marriage,
it is alleged, having been made in heaven ! The clergyman
is compelled by the great unthinking and asinine public
-to say —

" O Eternal God, Creator and Preserver of all mankind,
Giver of all spiritual grace, the Author of everlasting life;

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 45

Send Thy blessing upon these Thy servants,^ this man and
this woman,' whom we bless in Thy Name; that, as Isaac
and Rebecca lived faithfully together, so these persons ^
may surely perform and keep the vow and covenant betwixt
them made. ... I pronounce that they^ be man and wife
together, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost. Amen."

Was ever such blasphemy? The following Psalm is
then read: — (

" Thy wife^ shall be as the fruitful vine upon the walls of
thine house ; thy children like the olive-branches round
about thy table. . . i Yea, that thou shalt see thy children's
children."

Ah! pity these " children's children," and listen to their
cry — a cry which must go up to heaven and be there
registered against every one of us — men and womeri^
whose inhuman indolence' lulls us to degrading inaction'.
The hymn "The voice that breathed o'er Eden" is sung,
the organist plays the "Gloria in Excelsis," and ithe
" Nunc Dimittus " falls as a " curtain "; the second act of
this disgusting, race-destroying, and squalid tragedy being
enacted in a home for the care and control of the idiot,
imbecile, and feeblei-minded.

"Honour thy father and thy mother," says the Old
Book; but how, I ask, can the children begotten by
alcoholics, neurotics, consumptives, drug habitues, syphi:-
litics, and those suffering from the coarser forms of
degeneracy be expected to honour such parents ? An-
cestor-worship is a noble form of worship, but then it
must be a noble worship and real, and not a poor sham.
If our Christian religion would adopt more of the Jewish
characters, better results would follow. The Jewish re-
ligion teaches physical cleanliness and a code of moral
ethics. Iticonsists of two parts — a religion of health and
a religion of ethics. Much more to the point is that these
people, having been given a practical every-day code, can
and do follow it.

In January 1906 an event took place in America, the
papers coming but with the heading, "Outrageous Cere-
mony in an American town," the event being the marriage
' I.e., the imbecile, or idiot, or feeble-minded!

46 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

of two apes. Yet is this marriage not an object-lesson to
the thinking men and women ? Their conjugation harms
no one, and brings no curse upon a progeny. Unfortu-
nately, the marriage of the idiots draws others down and
adds to the already grand total of degenerates.

The action of even a professing Christian country in
permitting the begetting of children by idiots, imbeciles,
and lunatics is really hellish. It has not been put a stop
to simply because men and women have not the courage
to face this sad social condition. We have our societies
for preventing cruelty to children. Is it too much to ask
that they extend their protection to the unborn ? If one
would, say, strike the child, he would be considered a
fiend. But are we not fiends in permitting the present
gross conditions to continue ? The Lunacy Commissioners
fail absolutely in their duty when they rest contented by
"caring for the insane." Their chief duty should be to
prevent insanity and mental degeneracy.

I would suggest that some little benefit would accrue it
the question asked in churches when a notice of marriage
is read out — " If any of you know cause, or just impediment,
why these two persons should not be joined together in
holy Matrimony, ye are to declare it," were not couplefd
with the demand by the clergyman of " sufiicient sureties
with him to the parties ; or else put in a Caution (to the
full value of such charges as the persons to be married do
thereby sustain) to prove this allegation" — were withdrawn.
Surely such a demand should not be imposed upon any
person who honestly objects to the joining in marriage of
idiots, imbeciles, lunatics, feeble-minded, epileptics, con-
firmed drunkards, and habitual criminals.

The above statistics further prove that our nation has
one of its worst assets — one of its best factories — for breed-
ing degenerate offspring in these feeble-minded. It would
be instructive to find out how many children have been
begotten by these 170,898 officially recognized degene-
rates, and what is the mental condition of their off'spring.
Even a breeder of pigs must sneer at the professing
Christian in permitting — nay, in encouraging^— this steady
manufacturing by us of weak-minded children. It is
here we see the question I wish to raise, of cruelty to

SOME CAUSES OF. NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 47

children ; our action, or inaction, showing that we are
strong advocates for the policy of increasing the number
of insane and in multiplying them at the quickest possible
rate, thus going on the principle that " the more the
merrier," and that anything is good enough for marriage
and procreation.

I would propose that the medical superintendents of all
institutions for degenerates be instructed to send in a
return to the Lunacy Commissioners showing the number
of children born of such parents.

As emphasizing the dangerous results which follow our
encouraging' and fosiert'ng' the hegettmg of degenerates by
idiots and imbeciles, I would call attention to a letter sent
to me by Dr. Craddock, Medical Superintendent to the
Gloucester County Lunatic Asylums. The letter was
from a woman interested in degeneracy. She says —

"For years I have been struggling to prevent idiots
and lunatics being sent from our county asylum to marry
and breed m6re idiots — just as if the thing were desirable.
I gave it up in hopeless despair about four years ago,
owing to the following case : — A woman, who is more than
half an idiot, came to live with two sisters, one a total
and the other a partial idiot. She married a very <iull,
partially idiotic man, and had almost immediately to be
taken to the asylum. There she gave birth to a complete
idiot, and was sent home a few weeks afterwards, with
the result that the same thing has been repeated nine
times. I wrote several county magistrates (my husband's
fellow-magistrates) and to all the local authorities over
and over again, but I was told that I was cold and hard-
hearted."

Our nation would be doubly blessed if it had some
hundreds of such "cold and hard-hearted women."
These are they who prove that a great many of our social
problems can only be dealt with if women will take up
their proper position in public affairs, and give their time
and attention to questions which men generally have little
wish to tackle.

Again, Mr. P. H. Bagnall, L.G.B. Inspector for the
East and West Riding of Yofkshire, in 1903, reported as
follows: —

48 . . RACE CULTURE ; OR,. RACE SUICIDE?

" Guardians are frequently at a loss to know what to do
with children who are idiotic, imbecile, and feeble-minded ;
and there is undoubtedly a great lack of provision for
these classes in existing institutions. . . . Unfortunately,
the tendency for feeble-minded girls is to go wrong after
they have obtained freedom to leave the workhouse.
Unless they have unrelaxing after-care they do not seem
to have the power to resist temptation, and I am con-
tinually finding young women of this class in the lying-in
wards of the workhouse. In one workhouse I found five
young women — all of whom were feeble-minded. No. i
was going to be confined and had had two children before ;
No. 2 had had two children; No. 3 had had two children;
No. 4 had had one; and No. 5 had been delivered in the
summer and had had three children previously. All were
illegitimate. The cost of these cases is a very great
burden on the ratepayers, especially as the children will
probably turn but to be feeble-minded also. The fact is
this class becomes practically the prostitutes of the rural
districts."

Five feeble-minded females giving birth to fifteen
children, in one workhouse, and probably still going on
adding to the number ! I brought these facts before the
notice of Mr. Watson Rutherford, M.P. for Liverpool,
and he, on August nth, 1904, asked in the House of
Commons the then President of the Local Government
Board if he would order that measures be taken so that
the Poor Law Authorities would show what number of
idiot, imbecile, epileptic, feeble-minded and insane females
had given birth to children under the Poor Law system in
England and Wales during the last five years.

If reference "be made to the Blue Book " Half-ye^irly
Statement relating to Pauperism in England," for January
ist, 1905, the following paragraph will be found: —

"Inquiry was also made as to the number of feeble-
minded women who had given birth to children in the
workhpuses during the previous five years. The union
records do not admit of this information being given in
any degree of completeness, but so far as could be ascer-
:tained 63s such cases have occurred in the period men-
tioned." Ai least 127 per annum ! In England and

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 49

Wales (including London) 5,027 single women with 6,266
illegitimate children received relief on one day. On page
9 of this report it is stated that outdoor relief was given
to 2,336 single women, and of this number 287 were
mothers of illegitimate children.

As to the causes of idiocy and imbecility, Drs. Shuttle-
worth and Beach in England, and Dr. Barr in America,
have produced some valuable statistics. They place the
causes of idiocy under three heads — first, the causes acting
before the birth of the child ; second, causes acting during
birth ; and third, causes acting after birth. These patient
investigators had a vast number of children under their
care, Shuttleworth and Beach having 2,380, and Barr
3,050, or a total of 5,430 persons. On page 27 I have
referred to the results obtained by the Irish Census
Returns, and showing the number and position in the
family of deaf mutes.

Table IX.

No.

English

U.S.-'L

Recorded.

Percentage.

Percentage.

I. Causes acting before birth —

Family history of Phthisis ... 674 .

.. 28.31

... 7-57

„ Insanity ... 392 .

.. 16.47

... 7.08

„ Imbecility 117 .

.. 4.69

... 27.38

„ Epilepsy ... 207 .

.. 8.69

... 3.02

„ Intemperance 390 .

.. 16.38

... 4.46

Syphilis ... 28 .

.. I.I7

.20

„ Consanguinity 100 .

4.20

... 1.34

Abnormal condition of mother

during pregnancy ... 711 .

.. 29.87

... 8.49

Illegitimacy — .

.. 1.76

—

II. Causes acting at birth —

Premature birth 84 .

•• 3-52

... I. II

Primogeniture 492 .

.. 20.67

—

Prolonged pressure on head 339 .

.. 14.24

—

Instrumental delivery ... 79 .

•• 3-31

... .05

Asphyxia 153 .

.. 12.96

—

II. Causes acting after birth-

Infantile convulsions ... 652

.. 27.39

—

Epilepsy 193 .

.. 8.11

... 5.90

Injury to head 147

.. 6.i8

... 6.26

Fright or shock 73

3.06

—

Febrile illnesses 142

.. "5.96

... 4.46

Over-pressure at school ... 4

.16

... — ...

so KACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

U.S.A. Table — Percentage.

Causes acting before birth 64.85

at „ '2.92

„ after „ 32.23

Dr. Elam states that when the duty was removed off
spirits in Norway, insanity increased by 50 per cent., and
idiocy by 150 per cent. Howe found that nearly 50 per
cent, of the parents of idiots were drunkards. Speakingf
of consanguineous marriages, L. Down says, "I am by
no means sure that by a judicious selection of cousins the
race might not be improved."

As regards asphyxia of the child during its birth, Down
places it at 20 per cent, as a cause.

" Feeble-minded" and ^^ mentally backward" children. —
It has been truly said that the whole question of mental
degeneracy may be represented by an inclined plane,
at the top of which we have the high-grade degenerate,
and at the bottom the irreclaimable idiot. I would
point out that, owing largely to the labours of Langdon
Down, H. Tuke, F. Beach, Shuttleworth, and Barr, we
have been given a deeper and wider insight into this sad
— and more sad because unnecessary — question. They
have called attention, not to the idiot and imbecile, but
to the feeble-minded and "mentally backward" child — a
class who are not capable of being benefited by the usual
teaching as given in the primary education schools. It is
calculated that at least one per thousand of our population
between the ages of five and fourteen is so afflicted — that
is, 88,346. Mr. R. A. Bray, L.C.C., has stated that there
are 105,000 mentally backward children, of whom only
one-third could be so educated as to become self-supporting,
the remainder requiring compulsory detention in homes.
Our various educational authorities have established
schools for the education of such children. In connec-
tion with the education of these stricken degenerates,
I think that the educated degenerate will be a much less
desirable citizen than will the uneducated degenerate. To-
me the so-called educating of the mentally backward child
is one of the most difficult and one of the most dangerous
with which we are, called upon to deal. With them it is
not a question of curing their mental defect, because their

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 5 1

defect is congenital — born with them^ and so in this
respect they differ from the lunatic. It is not honest for
us to gull the public into believing that these can be really
educated. They may be taught to be clean and to
recognize some of the moral and social laws, but, all the
same, they are a " faked " class.

Mr. W. Barr says of them — " He who is born into this
sad heritage leaves hope behind. We cannot cure what
is not disease but defect, and that what the cradle rocks
the spade will cover." I would not deny these backward
persons the usual right of citizens. But I ask, are they>
when grown up, or at our present minimum marriage age
— twelve and fourteen years — capable of begetting a non-
tainted offspring? Let any one who wishes to answer
this question first pay a visit to the schools for these
backward children. If each of us put the question to our-
selves — " Would I like to have been begotten by a lunatic,
idiot, imbecile, epileptic, or feeble-minded person?" what
would the answer of each be ? It is our duty to stand in
the position of a special guardian to all infant life.

These badly marked, feeble-minded and backward
persons are a very dangerous class when we consider
them from the procreative standpoint, because if their
degeneracy be not noted they may pass as sane. We all
know that it is the slightly marked case of infectious
disease — one hardly recognized by an ordinary person —
which causes the most widespread epidemic. Similarly,
these "faked" or borderland cases, trained to deceive the
uninitiated and educated to such an extent as to merely
appear sane, require very careful consideration.

I suggest that "defective" and "backward" children
should not be permitted to marry until each has attained
their twenty-fifth year of age.

I make this suggestion because such children are likely
to develop into feeble-minded persons after the present
marriageable ages of twelve and fourteen years. The
period of life extendirig between twelve and fourteen and
twenty-five years will give time to show whether they will
improve or go from " bad to worse." The statements of
Mr. Bray — already referred to — are not encouraging. The
efforts to learn, and the struggle to make a living during

5

52 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

the years from twelve to twenty-five, will help to bring to
the surface any latent degeneracy. It is well known that
the shock of sexual intercourse, pregnancy, confinement
and suckling tend to bring to the surface "latent" mental
disorders.

If girls under thirteen and sixteen years shall be pro-
tected by the Criminal Law Amendment Act, and if those
ages were raised by a, subsequent Act from ten and
thirteen years, surely the marriageable ages of what one
may term "borderland" cases of degeneracy can be
raised to twenty-five years, even though some reiterate
the fashionable untruth that such marriages are made in
heaven ?

CHAPTER VIII.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND
DEGENERACY : CHILD-MARRIAGES.

It would appear that primitive man — or perhaps pre-
human man — when formulating his customs of marriage
obtained his crude ideas from a study of the lower animals.
To-day our marriage laws, from the age standpoint, are
arranged purely upon an animal basis and with little or
no consideration for common decency or national health.
Other European countries have advanced along the path
of physiology, while England and Turkey still cling to the
minimum age limit imposed by the sensual East, by the
Byzantine, Greek, and Roman periods. This old law is
still based upon the idea that the instant the human sexes
have — like the lower animals — arrived at the age of
puberty they should be given, by our legislation, free
licence. And so it is, that while here meetings are held
to protest against the "animalism" of India with her early
marriages, we only take one more step to accentuate the
prevalent idea abroad that we are a people who have
specialized hypocrisy to a fine art.

Some contend that if we increase the marriage age
immorality and illegitimacy will increase. But can we
increase the present extent of immorality and illegitimacy?
If we adopt this theory we encourage the idea that marriage
is made for the purpose of lessening prostitution, and not
for the purpose of the begetting of a sound race. If there
be one form of prostitution which we should guard against
it is "marital prostitution." If children are made to marry
for sexual gratification, and to save the expenses of
ordinary prostitution, this is real prostitution, and places
our women upon a humiliating and degrading level. Nor
will the assertion, that heightening the minimum age limit
would lead to an increase of illegitimacy, bear analysis.
The common knowledge relating to the artificial checks to
impregnation, the large number of abortionists, and the

S.3

54 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

wide use of abortion drugs will and do keep down
illegitimacy. Every woman whose name appears in
the daily press in the Births' column is now the
recipient of literature which asks her: "Why bear
more children?" "Check" literature now occupies a
recognized place in England. As regards illegitimacy,
my contention is borne out by the statistics of the
Registrar-General, which show that the number of illegiti-
mate births registered in 1891 was 38,781, and 37,303
in 1903.

Why do we encourage children to marry and beget at
an age at which we refuse to allow them to act as ' ' full
timers " in factories and workshops ? If it be wrong to
employ them at this age, it is doubly wrong to permit
them the high office of begetting children. The children
of immature parents run a great risk of becoming de-
generates. Again, we refuse to make a minor "respon-
sible for debts." Yet it is " all right" if he marry. We
should, however, recognize children as only "jerry-
builders " of the race, and much more dangerous than
jerry-builders of houses. Further, the English law (48
and 49 Vict. ch. 69) makes it an offence if a man
attempts to have, or has, unlawful sexual relations with
a female under thirteen and sixteen years of age, this
being punishable with penal servitude for life, or im-
prisonment for two years with hard labour. But the
man who marries a child and practically assaults her is
encouraged by our law to commit as grave an offence
against decency and religion.^ Again, a person under
twenty-one cannot lawfully make a will, yet we allow such
to marry.

In the United Kingdom a male child of fourteen and a
female child of twelve can marry, first obtaining the con-
sent of father, mother, or guardian, if any. But there is
no penalty if these marry without the consent.^ Under the
Commonwealth the age of marriage was raised to sixteen
for males and fourteen for females. Geary {Marriage and
Family Relations, p. 30) states that the marriage may

^ An actioTi for false statement may only be brought.
' It is illegal to have sexual relations with an imbecilej but not so if
married to her !

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 55

actually take place earlier than the fourteenth and twelfth
year, and says that if these marry when over seven years
old, the marriage is not void, but voidable on attaining the
age of fourteen or twelve. It has also been laid down that
a wife shall not have any dower unless she be nine years
of age at the death of her husband ; but she can obtain it
if her htisband is over four years of age. Even if infants
under the age of fourteen and twelve years marry with-
out consent, this does not affect the validity of the
marriage.

According to the last Annual Report of the Registrar-
General (1903), 45 per 1000 of husbands and 152 per 1000
of wives married during that year were minors. There
are, however, many reasons for doubting the accuracy of
statements made by some young married people. Of the
total marriages, in 5,700 persons the age was not stated. ,
Of the total marriages in 1903 (261,103), there were 11,935
mA\& minors anA 39,759 female m.inors; while 11,097 nien
and women could not write, but made a mark only in the
register. As regards the ages of the men minors, two
were under fifteen years of age, one under sixteen, 63
under seventeen, 644 under eighteen, 3,038 under nineteen,
and 8,182 under twenty. Of the female minors, 25 were
under fifteen, 121 under sixteen, 1,100 under seventeen,
5,577 under eighteen, 12,913 under nineteen, and 20,015
under twenty.

Various Parliamentary Returns have been issued by our
Government relating to the age of marriage (minimum) in
foreign countries (see Blue Books, C. 1096, June 1874; C.
7392, July 1894; and C. 1468, 1903). These show that
the minimum age limit is frequently much higher than in
England, varying from twenty-one for males and seven-
teen in females. But it must be further noticed that
abroad the consent of the parents, or guardians, or
judge, must be obtained to marriages under the age of
twenty-five years, and further, that the "betrothal"
is often a more serious act than the mere ceremony of
marriage.

The following relate to the minimum age in some
countries, "dispensations" being sometimes granted to
minors by the king, judges, or government: —

56

RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

Country.

Ages.
M. F.

Austria

- 14 12

Hungary -

do.

Argentine -

14 ■ 12

Bavaria

20 16

))

18 14

))

- 18 15

Belgium

18 IS

Brazil

16 14

Chili -

- Puberty.

Denmark

- 20 16

France

18 16

Greece
Germany

14

12

16

Other Conditions.

Minors under 24 require consent
of parents.

Do. do.

" Consent " under 24.

Previously 14 and 12, but couple
separated until obtaining ma-
turity.

Byzantine and Justinian law
operative.

Consent for under 25, used to
be 20. •

Ionian Islands

- 16

14

Hesse -

21 any age.

In 1852 male age 25.

Luxemburg -

- 18

15

Italy -

- 18

IS

Used to be 16.

Mexico

- 14

12

Consent to 21.

Netherlands

18

IS

Used to be 16.

Portugal

14

12

Prussia

18

14

Roumania

- 18

15

Consent to 25 and 21.

Russia

-' 18

16

None over 80 can marry; fourth
marriage debarred.

Poland

18

16

Caucasus -

- IS

13

Finland

- 21

'IS

Peasants 18 and 17.

Saxe-Coburg

- 21

14

Saxony

- 18

16

Servia -

- 17

IS

Men over 60 and women over 50
must not marry.

Spain -

- 14

12

Sweden

- 21

17

Previously 15,

Norway

- 20

16

But no age, betrothal not under
20 and 16— Old Law "con-
firmed."

Lapland

- 17

—

Switzerland

- 18

16

Previously differed in each can-
ton—consent raised from 19
to 25.

Turkey

- "Maturity."

Wiirtemberg

- 21

14

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION, 57
CoDNTRY. M.*°^°"f. Other Conditions.

/ United States —

4 States - 17 14 Consent, males 21, females ij.

9 ■ „ - 18 15 In Alabama a bond of 200

3 „ - 16 14 dollars, from those under 21,

2 „ 15 12 deposited as guarantee that

2 „ 21 18 there is no legal impediment.

21 „ 14 12

I think if we increased the minimum marriage age
degeneracy, pauperism, and disease would be lessened.

Suggestions.

(a) That it be illegal to issue a psrmit to marry, or to
join in marriage, or for any one to marry a man under
the age of twenty-five or a woman under the age of
twenty-one.

(5) That no person under the age of twenty-four shall
marry without the consent of the father or guardian or
magistrate.

(c) That no man over the age of sixty-five shall be
joined in marriage, unless the woman he wishes to marry
is over forty-five years of age.

CHAPTER IX.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENE-
RACY: WE FORBID THE HEALTHY TO MARRY.

" The public health is the foundation on which repose the happiness of
the people and the power of a country. The care of the public health is
the first duty of a statesman." — Lord Beaconsfield.

The English law while discouraging- many of the "fit" from
marrying, encourages "the unfit" — nay, compels them
under a penalty for refusal to marry. It practically says,
"Any man may marry any woman," and it takes it for
granted that all persons are sane until proved insane ; that
all are healthy until proved physically diseased. Sir J.
Stephen (Digest of Criminal Law, p. 22) says — "Every
person is presumed to be sane and to be responsible for
his actions. The burden of proving that he is irresponsible
is upon the accusing person." The law encourages all to
marry first, and after marriage to find out the reasons why
they should not have married ; and if it be void or void-
able, to act accordingly. It provides against certain
affinities and consanguinities, and no doubt an official
would not join in marriage persons who are lunatics, or
those not responsible for their actions. (But how can the
official know ?) If a parson or registrar join in marriage
a lunatic, this is a gross contempt of court. The Marriage
of Lunatics Act, 1811, only relates to lunatics "found to
be so after inquisition by a commission under the Lord
Chancellor, or to lunatics whose person and estate are
committed to the custody of particular parties. If such
lunatics marry without the consent of the Lord Chancellor,
such marriage is null and void."

It would seem that we have focussed all attention upon
the mere ceremony of marriage — this, perhaps, being due
to the winked-at idea that all marriages, of degenerates
and others, are made in heaven, and that the Almighty
will see that all has been put in due order for us ! But,
judging from results, it would be more accurate to believe

58

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 59

that not a few marriages have been made in "another
place." The ceremony of marriage is a mere detail, and
almost unnecessary when compared with other points
relating thereto.

How do we prevent the healthy and "fit" from
marrying? We prevent the "fit" soldiers from marrying;
but permitting the " unfit." Paragraph 721 of the King's
Regulations provides as follows: — "To qualify for admis-
sion to the married roll, all men under the rank of sergeant
must have ;^5 in the Army or Post Office Savings Bank,
have seven years' service and two good conduct badges."
Many clerks in banks and commercial houses are forbidden
to marry until they earn a given sum of money per week.
Then sectarian bodies step in and forbid their clergy,
priests, monks, nuns, and sisters of charity to marry. By
the last census returns there were in England and Ireland
23,182 of these. Nurses are forbidden to marry. There
were 75,936 of these in the United Kingdom in 1901. It
is to be noted that all these have been required to pass a
medical examination for fitness. Again, women in fac-
tories know that they run a poor chance of being employed
if they marry. Under the Employers' Liability Act em-
ployers do not care to engage married men, because if
they be killed their widows and orphan children must be
provided for. All recognize the true meaning of the
advertisement, "Coachman preferred, must be un-
married"; or, "if married, no encumbrances." In the
postal and telegraph departments of this country no
married women are admitted, and any woman marrying
must leave. It is to be supposed a similar rule will apply
to the telephone service when taken over. Lately the
London County Council has ruled that any female typist
in their service who marries must leave. Another blow to
the marriage of the fit has lately been given by a number
of educational authorities, who refuse to engage married
women as certified teachers, or to retain teachers should
they marry. About 25 per cent, of local authorities have
adopted such a rule. Thus, commerce and " religion "
say — " We claim the fit for business purposes; marry the
unfit and use them for procreation purposes." Not an
Imperial policy !

6o RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

I would suggest that it be made illegal for any person
to dismiss, or threaten to dismiss, any man or woman from
any occupation or employment because such man or woman
marries ; that it be illegal to refuse to employ any man or
woman because such are married; provided that such
persons are over the age of twenty-one and twenty, and have
obtained the consent of their parents, trustees, or court to
the marriage, and are in all respects fit to be married. If
the minimum marriage ages were increased from fourteen
and twelve to twenty-five and twenty-one, these proposals,
if adopted, would not affect so large a number as they
would if the present ages be retained. I think also, if
adopted, they would lead to a marked decrease in the
number of judicial separations, divorces, voluntary separa-
tions, unhappy marriages, squalid homes, and heavy sick
and death rates among mothers and infants. It is painfully
instructive to note that the number of " separation orders"
made by magistrates in England from the year 1895 to
1904 amounted to 30,990, these increasing from 1,035 '^^
1895 to 7,763 in 1904. Nor do these figures include the
divorces (720 in 1904), judicial or voluntary separations.
Many now hold that the Summary Jurisdiction (Married
Women) Act, 1895, is a grave legislative blunder, and a
puerile effort to solve some questions of the married state. ^

I have no hesitation in stating that if the marriageable
ages were increased from fourteen and twelve to twenty-
five and twenty-one, if each must present a medical
certificate of good health before being joined in marriage, if
the law of breach of promise to marry were repealed, if we
did not compel the diseased to marry, and made it illegal
for certain mental and physical degenerates to marry
(unless sterilized), the number of divorces and judicial
separations would diminish by 95 per cent.

^ A London magistrate has actually proposed that magistrates should
have power to grant divorce, as well as judicial separation !

CHAPTER X.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY :
WE COMPEL THE DISEASED OR "UNFIT" TO MARRY —
PROPOSED PRE-NUPTIAL HEALTH CERTIFICATE — ABOLITION
OF BREACHES OF PROMISE TO MARRY.

" For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap."

— Old Book.

This is an important question when we consider that " the
unfit " are very prolific ; and that those who are physically,
morally, socially, mentally, and financially best qualified to
beget healthy offspring- are refusing to do so. If pro-
creation is to fall to the lot of the "unfit," the time must
come when the number of parasites and drones will out-
number the workers, and when the "fit" will be crushed
by paying taxes for the upkeep of degenerates.

As showing how the law encourages the marriage ot
"the unfit," and so performs the common trick of "locking
the stable door after the steed has been stolen," it will be
noted that an impotent person may marry, but that the
marriage is voidable. If a lunatic marry, his marriage is
void. But what about the wife and the child ? The
woman sexually deformed is allowed to marry and to
become pregnant, so having to undergo an operation
which will be a grave danger to her life, while her child
may have to be killed in the womb. Why allow such to
marry? When obtaining the licence for marriage it is not
necessary for both man and woman to appear before the
registrar, and so he cannot see the state of mind or body
of the absent party to the agreement. Even if the appli-
cant swear falsely before the registrar, it is not perjury, but
only a misdemeanour. But a marriage can take place
without a licence being first taken out. No licence should
be granted unless both parties appear personally.

A great deal is spoken in favour of " natural selection."
But society and many of our spiritual advisers are so short-
sighted as to vehemently oppose what they term "mixed

6l

62 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

marriages," never asking themselves by what right do
they oppose the marriage of a Protestant with a Roman
Catholic, or a Protestant with a Nonconformist. There are
neither biblical nor common-sense reasons for so opposing.
Marriage has nothing whatsoever to do with sectarian
or mere theological disputations, and it would be better if
this form of theological dyspepsia and cant ceased.

It is not likely that every man will have sufficient
wisdom and such tender regard for his future offspring as
will stimulate him to follow the example of the head of the
present Cecil family, where Exeter, clothing himself as a
labourer and working with the labourers, selected from
among them a daughter of a labourer and married her.
It is this story — a story which Lord H. Cecil informs me is
founded on fact — which Tennyson immortalizes in his
poem, " The Lord of Burleigh," where he says —

" In her ear he whispers gaily,
If my heart by signs can tell,
Maiden, I have watched thee daily,
And I think thou lov'st me well."

In England to-day, any one who proposed that " natural
selection " be recognized would be laughed at by the many
thousands of ignorant persons. Only good ancestry or
parentage is considered in the pedigree of a dog, horse,
or other animal; while not a few sons take as their ideal of
" ancestor-worship " the banking account of their parents.
These creatures are of the tribe who beget weaklings, and
who try to stimulate a jaded body by unnatural actions.

One chief reason why a pre-nuptial certificate of good
health would give good results is that it would prevent
many " borderland cases," neurotics, and mild degenerates
from intermarrying. It is well known that consumptive
persons are afflicted with sexual lust, while they and many
neurotics insist on marrying with neurotics.

It is most unfortunate that we begin to contaminate our
nation at the marriage altar. We say that " the founda-
tion of society" is the marriage law. Yet we are gradually
weakening the foundation, for to this marriage altar come
a wide and deep stream of the diseased and the healthy;
the rich and the pauper; the sane and the insane; -the

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 63

idiot, epileptic, imbecile, feeble-minded, and the backward;
the criminal, the habitual vagrant, and the honest ; the
child and the senile; the syphilitic and the consumptive;
the habitual inebriate and the drug habitue; the deformed
woman — she who is ' ' faked " by the dressmaker so as to
hide some physical defect; the rake and the blameless;
the rou6, the neurotic, the erotic, the sexual pervert, and
the "reformed" prostitute.

To these the registrar glibly issues the permit to marry
(and takes the fee), and the parson gives these degenerates
his questionable blessing, telling them that as God has
joined them together, no man — not even the lawyer —
must pull them asunder; while the brides, if not blessed
(not here cursed) with sterility, add their share to the total
of degenerates, these latter being cared for so that they
may again beget a third generation of weaklings. Thus
the "merry game" goes on. A voice in this wilderness
may cry out, "Oh, pity the children!" But society,
practically, by its acquiescence in existing conditions,
replies, "Oh, damn the children! the marriage has been
made in heaven."

Our laws protect property^ and punish the man who
criminally assaults the girl under sixteen years of age ;
punishes the man who has unlawful sexual intercourse
with the female idiot or imbecile, with or without her
consent. But it refuses its protection to the married idiot
or to the unborn child. Again, why does the law rightly
make it a crime for a doctor to inoculate a person or
animal (without a licence) with disease, while it does not
interfere with the person who inoculates his wife or child
with syphilis or tuberculosis ? Why do not the humani-
tarians and the societies for prevention of cruelty to
children attack these foul conditions ? Why do they call
out, " Spare the animals from cruelty," and refuse to help
those who try to prevent the marriage of the unfit ? It is
often those who say, "You must not interfere with the
liberty of the subject," who are the strongest advocates of
lifelong imprisonment for the degenerate.

^ A judge and jury have actually agreed that a person of unsound mind
can marry, and is capable of managing himself, but is incapable of
managing business affairs ! This is Race Culture with a vengeance !

64 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

These points show that our present actions are the
opposfte of race-culture. They work for race-suicide,
race-murder, and race-extinction. We are all to blame,
but especially the clergy, because they have constituted
themselves the guardians of marriage, and that here they
are alone Heaven's representatives, never recollecting
perhaps that marriage was introduced long, long before
Christianity came into existence. The lawyers also are to
blame, as they practically say, " Marry and try it, and then
get divorced if you find you have made a mistake." On
the other hand, the prevention of divorce, and not the
making of it easy, is my aim. Our chief effort here should
be to make marriages more difficult, casting aside that
fetish worship of Priapus and Phallus, which contends that
marriage is to be used as a prevention of sexual crime.
The prevention of divorce does not appear to have entered
into the clerical or legal mind. But, by making the entry
to marriage more difficult instead of easier, we shall lessen
the number of unhappy marriages, lessen the number of
divorces and judicial separations, prevent the marriage of
the "unfit," and, best of all, lessen the number of de-
generate offspring. By every means in our power let
man's love for woman and woman's love for man be
nurtured and multiplied; but we have to remember that
love and duty must not be confounded with lust, or the
' ' loving " with bestiality. One may take as the highest
types of love that which the mother has for her children,
that which the father has for his family, that which animals
have for their young, that which the patriot and statesman
have for their country, and that which the Christs — the
Christ, Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster, Mohammed, and
others — have and have had for humanity. Hearn [Out
of the East) says, "The reader is doubtless aware
that in the old Aryan family the bond of union was
not the bond of affection, but a bond of religion
to which natural affection was altogether subor-
dinate. This condition characterizes the patriarchal
family wherever ancestor-worship exists." Evidently,
in the olden days, duty to the state and duty to the
clan was held of higher importance than the acts
of the modern male or female lovers. As Emerson says,

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 65

duty as a religion is much better than religion as a
duty.

The love of these is supreme and for all time, and it
must not, and cannot be degraded by comparing it with
that vulgarly termed sexual desire, or with that of the
love-acting coquette, whose love-acting is in direct pro-
portion to the amount of money she can " squeeze" from
her "lover," and which makes a suspiciously rapid
demise when her lover's cash has vanished.

At present we have adopted not the best, but the
worst methods for begetting a healthy and sound nation,
while we are blindly rushing on to worse evils by doing our
best to bring about a survival of the " unfit," by advocat-
ing a policy of marriage of the mentally and physically
diseased. What will posterity say about our eiforts ?

It will not benefit our nation if we leave the begetting
of the coming race to the slum population. The love
for children, and for healthy children, must be made a
form of the highest religion and culture. Ruskin, in one
of his works (Unto this Last), refers to the barbaric queen
who, when summoned to appear before another queen
arrayed "in all the glaring impotence of dress," was
reproved by the latter asking her — "Where are your
jewels?" She replied by sending for her seven strong
sons, manly in health and grace, and presented them
with the short but immortal speech — "These are nty
jewels." When we have developed culture to such a
high level as this — taught the mere money-bags of society
that their wealth is as mere dross when unaccompanied
by good deeds and good living ; when we have given
practical heed to Race Instinct, then we shall be able,
like the barbaric queen, to point to our sons and daughters
as to the most important, and the real foundation — pearls
of our country. Herodotus (book i. 136) said that " in
Persia there are prizes given by the king to those who
have most children. He who has no child the bridge of
paradise shall be barred to him. The first question the
angels there will ask him is — whether he has left in the
world a substitute for himself ; if he answer no, they will
pass by, and he will stay at the head of the bridge, full of
grief and sorrow." (Saddar, 18; Hyde, 19.)

66 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

The primitive meaningf of this belief is, according' to
Max Miiller, explained by the Brahminical doctrine that
the man without a son falls into hell, because there is no
one to give him the family worship.

How do we compel the unhealthy and unfit to marry ?
A reference to the following' two law cases will explain.

In the first case (Atchinson v. Baker, loth December
i797> 2 Peake 103) : this was an action for breach of
promise of marriage, the declaration stating, in general
terms, that in consideration that the plaintiff being sole
and unmarried had promised to marry the plaintiff.

"All the witnesses, on the part of the plaintiff, proved
the promise to be to marry the plaintiff in due time after
the death of the defendant's father.

" Cribbs (for the defendant) objected that this evidence
was a fatal variance from the declaration. A promise to
marry generally is a promise to marry immediately, but
this promise was not to operate until a subsequent event
had taken place ; it was conditional in its nature.

^' Erskine (for the plaintiff) answered that this was
proved to be an absolute promise to take effect when a
future event had taken place ; immediately that event
happened, the promise became general and indefinite, and
might be so stated in the declaration.

'■^ Lord Kenyan. — The intent of special pleading is to
inform parties of the case their adversary means to prove
against them. The promise is indefinite — the party to
whom it is made may call upon the maker to perform it
at any convenient time ; but where it is not to be per-
formed immediately, but to pend upon the happening of
another event, it does not operate until after that event
has happened. It is therefore quite a different promise in
its nature, and must be stated in the declaration in the
form in which it was made.

" In this case the plaintiff was a widower upwards of
forty years of age, and the defendant a widow about
the same age ; when the promise was made the plaintiff
was apparently in good health, but the defendant after-
wards discovered that she had an abscess in her breast,
and for that reason refused to marry him after her father's
death.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 6j

" Lord Kettyon (after directing a non-suit on the. objec-
tion to the declaration) said that if the condition of the
parties was changed after the time of making the con-
tract, it was a good cause for either party to brea-k off the
connection. Lord Mansfield had held that if, after a man
had made a contract of marriage, the woman's character
turned out to be different from what he had reason to
think it was, he might refuse to marry her without being
liable to an action (Foulkes v. Seelway, 3 Esp. c. 236),
and whether the infirmity was bodily or mental, the
reason was the same. It would be most mischievous to
compel parties to marry who could never live happily
together."

It is a great pity this ruling has been set aside by the
following case: —

"Hall i;. Wright (Exch. Div., November 26th, 1859,
^9 L. Q.B.D.N., s. 43) Contract. Breach of promise to
marry ; illness supervening, rendering man incapable of
marriage without danger to life.

"Declaration for breach of promise to marry within a
reasonable time, averring that a reasonable time had
elapsed, and that the defendant refused to marry the
plaintiff.

" Pleas-*— that after the promise and before breach,
defendant was, and still is afflicted with a dangerous
(frequent, severe, bleeding from the lungs) disease, by
reason whereof the defendant became, and was, and
henceforth has been, and still is, incapable of marriage
without danger to his life, and therefore unfit for the
married state, whereof the plaintiff had notice before
action.

"The jury found the plea proved, except the notice —
verdict for defendant. [In the Appeal Court.

"Held by the majority of the Court (Williams, J.,
Martin, B., Crowder, J., and Willes, J.) and reversing the
judgment below, that a party cannot set up an excuse for
the breach of a promise to marry, that the performance of
the conjugal duties would be dangerous to his life, and
that the plea disclosed no good difference to the plaintiff's
claim for damages.

"Held by the minority (Pollock, C. B., Bramwell, B,,

6

68 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

and Watson, B.) that there is an implied condition in ^
contract of marriage that the parties remain in sufficient,
health to undergo the excitement of the ceremony of
marriage, and to perform the functions of the marriage
state, without danger to life ; that the circumstances set
forth in the plea as to the state of health of the defendant
were a bar to the plaintiff's claim to maintain an action
for alleged breach of contract, and that the averment of
notice to the plaintiff was immaterial."

As the judges differed in opinion, they delivered their
judgments seriatim. Proceedings in court below, 27 L. J.
R.N.S.Q.B. 345.

In Scotland they manage things better than in England.
Thus, on January 30th, 1906, at Edinburgh, a case came
on for hearing where a woman sued the trustees of a dead
man for breach of promise to marry. The man had died
three years previously and left ;^i7,ooo. In 1900 he had
proposed marriage and had been accepted ; but soon after
he broke down in health, became insane, and so died.
The trustees pleaded that the engagement was rendered ,
void by the supervening insanity or dissolved by death,
and Lord Pearson decided in favour of the trustees.

Suggested pre -nuptial medical Certificate of Good
Health. — This last case lends great weight to the proposal
to the effect that no person shall be permitted [a) to issue
a permit to marry; (d) or to join in marriage; or (c) to
marry, until both the intending bride and bridegroom
present medical certificates of good health to the person
issuing the permit to marry; such certificate being given
by the usual medical adviser ; or, in case of the poor, by a
doctor appointed by the local health authority.

If such pre-nuptial examination were in force it would
frequently save the medical practitioner much sorrow and
anguish. How can he calmly stand by and see the drug-
habitue, chronic alcoholic, the venereal outcast, the insane,
the idiot and imbecile, the deformed, the neurotic and
"borderland" cases marry, knowing of the hollow
mockery which is about to be enacted in the church, and
the curse which is certain to fall upon the unoffending
children? Might the public not spare the physicians in
§uch matters ?

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 69

North Dakota State has proposed that a Public Ex-
amining Board be formed. In Michigan, the applicant
for a permit to marry must state that he "is acquainted
with the laws of Michigan relative to marriage as printed
upon the back of this blank." On the back is printed the
main facts, referred to further on under the Michigan Act.^
The English form says practically nothing. See also
Minnesota certificate.^

It may be thought that the intelligent portion of the
public, by having their lives insured before marriage,
secure a pre-nuptial medical certificate. It might be made
more so if both the man and woman insured on the mutual
or combined plan. Against that, one mu9t recollect that
some companies do not require a medical certificate; that
some pay so small a fee (2s.) that the examination is not
of much value ; and, further, that all the degenerate class
would refuse absolutely to be examined.

Suggested abolition of actions for Breach of Promise to
■marry. — Referring back to actions for breach of promise
to marry, I think it would benefit the national health if the
law or judgment last referred to were repealed. Many
men and women would, for good cause, break off engage-
ments were it not for the fear of exposure in Court. In
Italy a promise to marry is not a binding contract ; but if
the promise has been made in writing, any expenses may,
within the period of one year, be recovered from the
defaulter. In Portugal no action for breach of promise
can be brought ; but the person to whom gifts have been
made must return them, and if any expenditure has been
authorized, the person so authorizing it must pay such.
Further, I think that if actions were not allowed, there
would be fewer unhappy marriages, fewer divorces —
judicial or judicious separation orders. In fact, it may
be made a truism — for every intended marriage broken off"
there will be one fewer divorce or one fewer unhaj)py
marriage.

It is surely humiliating to our religious professions and

to our over-vaunted civilization to find that one of the

parties to an unwilling matrimonial alliance — having found

that one is a mental or physical degenerate, and that there

1 P. 133. 2 p. 137.

70 RACE CULTURE; OR, RAGE SUICIDE?

is a total want of affinity between the two — attempts to
break off an ill-arranged engagement, is headed off from
his or her honest wish by a threat to be shown up in a
court of law or be denounced by scheming relatives.

In 1879 the House of Commons, on the motion of
Mr. Herschell (afterwards Lord Herschell), adopted the
following : —

" That in the opinion of this House the action of breach
of promise of marriage ought to be abolished, except in
cases where pecuniary loss has been incurred by reason
of the promise, the damage being limited to such pecuniary
loss."

Baron Bramwell also said — "I cannot help thinking
that these are actions which ought not to be encouraged.
If people change their minds, it is better that they should
do so before marriage than when it is too late."

Sir H. James, now Lord James, said — "They were to
give damages to a woman for not being allowed to marry
a man who was unwilling to be married. That could form
no ground of damage to a woman if she had her proper
feelings — that she was not to be allowed to spend her life
in the society of a man who had no feeling of affection
towards her. The action was a punishment on the man
who refused to make two lives miserable. A man might
have other good reasons for not entering into marriage
besides those connected with a commercial spirit. He
might have found the temper of the woman not suitable to
him ; he might have found a temper with which nobody
could agree, and they were punishing a man because he
had the courage to say, ' I think it is better, in the
interests of both of us, that our lives should not be spent
in misery.' "

Mr. Justice Bigham has, in 1906, expressed similar
views.

I would suggest that if any man (or woman) who has
given his or her promise to marry can prove to the satis-
faction of a judge in chambers that before or after such
promise was made a condition of mental or bodily disease
exists, and that such disease will, if the afflicted person
marry, act injuriously upon his or her health, or is likely
to hand down a mental or bodily disease to any offspring

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. /I

of such proposed marriage, such plea shall, when good,
be a bar to any action in Court. Provided also that any
gifts made shall be returned, and that any expenses made
by written order of the person desirous of breaking off the
engagement shall be paid by such person.

In almost all European countries — France, Italy,
Austria, Holland, and Germany — no action for damages
for breach of promise to marry stands ; only damages to
the extent of the cost of preparation, if any, for the
wedding being given. I would also suggest that if a
male impregnate a female after a promise to marry her,
he should be punished very severely.

In connection with this subject, one should call attention
to the proposal to tax men who do not marry. But why
not also tax the many women who refuse to marry ? The
proposal is absolutely absurd, because many men suffering
from mental or physical disease — determined not' to
transmit such to a wife and children — deny themselves
the privileges of married life and fatherhood. If bachelors
were taxed, surely provision would be made not to tax
those who fail to obtain a pre-nuptial certificate of good
health. It is for such as these I have brought forward my
proposal of voluntary sterilization.

I would suggest that those married couples who per-
sistently refuse to have any children be taxed. What
Dr. Matthews Duncan termed " one child sterility " should
be closely inquired into. The excuse of the fashionable
rou^, who described her only child as "an accident of
love," points to a very morbid social condition amongst
those who hold that family life and maternity are things
of the past, and for the vulgar only.

CHAPTER XI.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DE-
GENERACY: WE RELEASE ASYLUM PATIENTS AS "RE-
COVERED." WHEN NOT RECOVERED — IS INSANITY
CURABLE ?

According to the Fifty-ninth Annual Report of the Com-
missioners in Lunacy, during the year 1904 no less than
7,069 asylum patients were discharged as "recovered,"
and 6,220 as "not recovered." Of the latter number
3,973 were transferred to other institutions. It is alarming
to note that of criminal lunatics — the most dangerous
class — the number was 877, arid of this number 33 were
discharged as " recovered " and 146 " not recovered." In
Ireland, 1,418 were discharged as "recovered" and 522 as
"not recovered." In Scotland, 1,517 were discharged as
"recovered," and "not recovered" (excluding transfers)
132.1 .

Irrespective of the very doubtful 10,004 discharged
"recovered," here we have the large total of 2,901
asylum patients discharged as "not recovered" during
twelve months only. Do the Commissioners wish the tax-
paying public to take it that these patients have actually
recovered, just as any other hospital patients suffering
from some physical illness, are entered as recovered?
Do they say that they are fit for citizenship, able to fight
the battle of life, entitled to marry, to return to marital
life, and to beget healthy children ? If the Commissioners
deny complete recovery, then they are wilfully and
dangerously misleading the public. Surely the Com-
missioners are not so unmindful of their duties to the
public as to wilfully mislead? So long as the Com-
missioners neglect — and why do they neglect ? — to state
what proportion of the "recovered" have been re-

' When speaking of the word "recovered," let us remember that no
one has yet proved that lunacy in the adult is not congenital: only late in
appearing.

72

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION, 73

admitted into some asylum, home or private institution,
or how long these have remained sane, so long, I trust, a
healthy scepticism will refuse to accept their statistics as
reliable. If there is so large a proportion of "cured"
insane, then, practically, each asylum is a new edition of
Lourdes ! It is this juggling and thimble-rigging with this
■ve'ord " recovered " that misleads juries, causes them to,
arrive at false verdicts, and makes the average physician
shirk from signing a lunacy certificate with almost as
much dread as he would order his own imprisonment.
For this reason the Commissioners hear nothing of the
finer forms of insanity.

If we agree with the Commissioners as to the marvellous
" recoveries" which take place, we shall not be surprised
to find that in Ireland — where the total insanity is, strange
to say, increasing, and not decreasing — the percentage
of recoveries on the admissions was 36.3 in the district
asylums !

One may here add that there is another expression
frequently used when discussing insanity. I refer to the
term "harmless lunatic." One might as well use the
foolish term "harmless smallpox patient." The expres-
sion is evidently used by those who do not study the insane
from the procreation standpoint. Here, again, we have
the policy of laissez faire and "Oh, damn the children."
The Lunacy Commissioners, and Masters and Visitors in
Lunacy for England cost the taxpayer over ;^32,ooo per
annum. Surely it is not too much to ask that their
remarks and reports shall be more reliable and much less
misleading than they now are. The daily papers come
out with big headlines — " Escape of a dangerous lunatic,'*
but how many " dangerous lunatics " are discharged daily
from our asylums, or are permitted to mix in society, to
marry and to beget children, and yet the press and the
public make no effort to stop this dangerous state of
affairs ? Some time ago an escaped lunatic placed several
gates upon the railway line so as to overturn the trains,
and when asked why he did so, replied — "Just for the
fun of the thing." Do we allow discharged " recovered"
insane, " the harmless insane" (?), to marry and to beget;
more insane "just for the fun of the thing".? Our actions

J'4 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

answer "Yes." And yet we profess to wonder why the
number of insane increases yearly !

It must be asked:. Have the Commissioners the right
to use this word " recovered," even when they are careful
to print it in inverted commas ? Their sad but dangerous
jokelet might be, perhaps, appreciated if they put a note of
exclamation after the word. If the Commissioners mean,
when they have agreed to those patients being discharged,
that the person is genuinely recovered and cured, and that
he is fit to perform the highest duty of citizenship, the
begetting of healthy children, then their official stamp is
not only a danger to the public health, but is also a grave
menace to our national existence. Fortunately, the more
enlightened portion of the public have as little faith in
these asylum "recoveries" as they have in the surgeon
who reports that his operation has been "an unqualified
success," but who in a few hours or days signs this
patient's death certificate as death due to cardiac failure !

What constitutes a "recovery"? When in 1904 I dis-
cussed this question before the Medico-Legal Society of
London, Sir J. Macdougal, then chairman of the London
County Council's Asylum Committee, said that by "re-
covered " was meant those insane who are harmless and
who have no suicidal or homicidal tendencies !

Nor will a perusal of the Lunacy Act, 1900, help one to
point to any exact definition of the term "recovered."
Section 74 enacts that certain lunatics shall not be dis-
charged if the medical officer certify in writing that the
patient "is dangerous and unfit to be at large." Section
79 enacts that the " visitors " of an asylum may discharge
a "pauper" lunatic on condition that the lunatic shall be
'^^ prevented from doing injury to himself or others." As
very many lunatics are discharged by any three visitors
to an asylum, and not by a medical board, it follows that
many are discharged who should be detained.

It is not too much to ask. Do the Visiting Committees
and the Lunacy Commissioners honestly believe that even
one-quarter of the total discharged as "recovered" are
not capable^nay, absolutely certain — of " doing injury to
others"? If a lunatic is discharged as " recovered" and
marry or resume conjugal relations, will he not do "injury

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 75

to Others"? Even with the Lunacy Act in its present
state, it behoves all those who discharge lunatics as
"recovered" to think of the fearful injury which is done
to the coming race. It would be much more manly if the
visitors and Commissioners honestly told the public that
they would discharge no insane persons, even if "re-
covered," without the latter being absolutely certain of
doing no ' ' injury to others. " With a strange inconsistency,
the visitors and Commissioners display a tender regard for
those lunatics who have a suicidal desire, guarding these
carefully, but allowing a really more dangerous class to go
free, and to imprint their degeneracy upon others ! A con-
sideration of these and many similar inconsistencies makes
one think that it might give better results if the drafting
and arranging of a new Lunacy Act were taken from our
members of Parliament and left to the consideration of the
insane in asylums ! I feel certain the latter would here give
us better legislation than does Parliament, for the insane
acutely understand their sufferings and their dangers to the
public health. Parliament is concerned with the liberty of
the subject only when it discusses lunacy problems.

Fortunately, the Asylums Committee of the London
County Council, in their fifteenth Annual Report, state
that, during the nine years ending 1903, no less than
10,285 were discharged as "recovered" (the number
flavours of the heal-all virtues of some quack nostrum) ;
but — and here is the point — of this number, 2,646 had to
be readmitted within twelve months of their so-called
" recovery." Further, they state that they have no know-
ledge of the number readmitted into asylums outside
London, nor do they know how many of the remainder
remained recovered.

What would be said of the fever hospital authority which
turned out smallpox, typhus, diphtheria, and other patients
among the public when not cured ? Yet these would not
be half so dangerous to the national mental well-being as
the " recovered" insane. But commerce says, "They are
good enough for marriage and breeding." As a matter of
fact the fever patient is often kept in the hospital for some
weeks as a convalescent before being sent out.

Is insanity really curable? — The report of the Commis-

j6 . RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

sioners, unfortunately, encourages the pious fraud that
these degenerates become sane and quite capable of be-
getting non-degenerate stock. Is mental degeneracy-
curable, however? No one contends that idiots, imbe-
ciles, feeble-minded, habitual inebriates, lunatics, and
habitual criminals can be cured — that is, from the very
highest standpoint — so as to beget healthy offspring.

The English Commissioners, in their fifty-sixth Annual
Report, say^" No sustained advance has taken place in
the average recovery rate in the last thirty years." I am
not aware of any person having stated that any recovery,
worth the name, of the insane has ever taken place. In
their fifty-ninth Report they state that the recovery rate
was lower than that for 1903, and below the average for
the preceding ten years.

Dr. F. J. Smith [Brit. Med. Journal, September 24th,
1904) says — "Anatomical research and neurological infer-
ences tend to show that recovery from lunacy is not and
cannot be complete."

Perhaps the managers of the district asylums in Ireland
give a truer insight into the true value of therapeutics in
the case of degeneracy when they report that in one year
;^4,87i were expended upon "tobacco and snuff," and
£2,zg^ upon " wines, beer, and spirits !"

Dr. Clay Shaw, in his work Essays on Insanity, gives a
truer idea when he quotes from Omar Khayydm —

"There was a door to which I found no key:
There was a veil past which I could not see.
Myself — when young- — did eagerly frequent
Doctor and saint and heard great argument
About it and about. But evermore
Came out by that same door as in I went."

Of the total insane received into the Lancashire County
Asylums,

6,016 were readmitted,

4,994 were discharged as not improved, and

7,359 as only partially relieved.

What would be thought if any general or fever hospital
showed such a sad recovery rate ?

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 7/

As regards deaths among the insane in asylums, it is
nearly twenty times as high in those between the ages of
twenty to twenty-four as that of the general death-rate of
all England and Wales, so demonstrating the fact that
physical deterioration and mental degeneracy are closely
associated.

I would suggest —

(a) That the Commissioners do not use the word "re-
covered" unless they possess absolute proof that the
persons discharged have recovered — and from the highest
standpoint — the procreation of healthy children.

{b) That they do not discharge "not recovered" cases
unless these have been sterilized.

(c) That the Commissioners, twice yearly, supply a list
with the names and addresses of all patients discharged as
" recovered " to the persons empowered to issue a permit
to marry to those wishing to marry.

(d) That if any person who has been released from any
asylum or institution as " recovered " afterwards impreg-
nates his wife or other woman, and the woman or wife
bears an idiot, epileptic, imbecile, feeble-minded, defective,
or backward child, or deaf mute, such person, on proof
being given that the degeneracy of the child is due to this
action, shall be sterilized. That these children also be
sterilized.

(e) That if any person who has been released from any
asylum or institution as "recovered" afterwards impreg-
nates his wife or other woman, he shall be fined ;^ioo, or
imprisoned for six months.

(/") That if any woman who has been discharged as
" recovered " bring forth a degenerate infant as mentioned
in (d), she shall, on due proof, be sterilized, and also such
offspring.

(g) That if any sane person be joined in marriage to a
degenerate, or have sexual intercourse with a degenerate,
the sane person shall be fined or imprisoned.

CHAPTER XII.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY;
OVERWORK OF THE YOUNG BRAIN.

"It is but lost labour that ye haste to rise up early, and so late take
rest, and eat the bread of carefulness, for so he gives his beloved sleep. " —
Old Book.

The building of the body of the child is a very difficult and
trying task for parents, but when we come to the greatest
eflfbrt, the building of a healthy yoiing brain, we are met
with immense difficulties.

When the controllers of elementary education ordered
that infants of three years and upwards should be sent to
school, no further action was needed to prove absolutely
that these controllers were destitute of that knowledge
which is necessary in those who mould the educational
policy of a nation. Nothing but disaster can follow if we
adopt such a policy. The infant brain must not be made
to act or work in the same way or by the same processes
as is the adult brain. It is, further, ridiculous to contend
that the brains of all children in this country are equal,
and that, therefore, the same strain should be put upon all.
If we recognize the fact that all children at a given age —
say, at five years of age — have not the same physical
power, and so cannot perform the same amount oi physical
work, surely it is not too much to ask that a similar
process of reasoning shall be applied to mental work. At
present we are engaged in labelling children "backward,"
or " mentally defective," often because these cannot, at
the school age — say, from five to fourteen years old — cram
a fixed amount of knowledge into their poor little brains.
Why do we fail to recognize that no training can create
intelligence ? We may improve or help by training, to
heighten the general level of intelligence, but we cannot
do this beyond a certain point. Further, at present
educationists, so called, have failed to grasp the fact that
the brain power of the child is not always to be tested by

78

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 79

mental tests. Why should we make such a system the
only test? Why, for instance, should boys and girls be
classified as "mentally backward" because they cannot
secure a certain average of marks in reading, writing,
arithmetic, geography, music, and drawing? The test is
artificial. It is based on the false hypothesis that we shall
be able to breed a nation of intellect. Here is the great
stumbling-block. The intellectual standard may be that
which is required by men engaged in commerce who
demand child labour for their offices and mills instead of
adult labour, and who will pay a rate of wage only for boy
and girl labour; but I fail to see why the commercial
man should dictate to us or establish a law upon this
subject. What does he know, and what does he care,
about the real brain development and growth of the child?
Nothing. He is aiming at " scooping in the dollars," and
cares just as little for the true welfare of a nation as he
does for the large number of children whose brains will
not stand the task which he, in his greed, demands of
them. The question is, Are we to sanction a policy of
dictation based only upon greed ? I have lately been told
by a man of commerce that what he wants in his office is
a boy or girl of not more than fourteen years of age who
is an expert shorthand-writer and can operate a typewriter
machine as well as can an adult. ^

At present we are engaged in the wild-goose chase of
trying to show that the old apprenticeship system is
wrong, and that it is the parrot-trained young male or
female teacher who is to take the place of the old master.
Does any practical person contend that our nation requires
that all the people in it must be considered failures if they
cannot pass through a certain sized mesh in the educa-
tional sieve ? I would suggest that if 65 per cent, of the
people are educated so as to only read and write, their
education is complete in so far as their vocation depends
upon reading and writing. I go further, and contend
that there are large numbers of capable workers and
capable thinkers who cannot read or write. It is one of
the fashions of to-day to offer statistics showing that a
certain proportion of those who marry cannot sign the
marriage certificate, or that a certain number of criminals

8o RACE CULTURE ; OR, RACE SUICIDE ?

cannot read or write. But is it contended — honestly con-
tended — that these people who do not possess the monkey
or parrot power of reading certain letters of the alphabet,
or making a certain number of signs in writing, are unfit
to learn skilled or unskilled crafts, or would not be
criminals if they could write ? Many a skilled craftsman
cannot write.

One often hears some one lamenting the fact that they
have not remembered all they were taught in their youth I
It may be taken as true that the average man and woman
have forgotten fully four-fifths of what they have been
taught in their youth. Were it otherwise our lunatic
asylums would be more full than they are now ; the
number of idiots and imbeciles would be quadrupled,
while the educated or expert criminal would be a greater
danger than he is to-day. If we recollect that the adult
human brain will record only a certain number of impres-
sions, just as will the sensitive plate of a camera, we may
grasp the primitive educational fact that the brain can do
only a certain amount of work, and not that gigantic
total which greedy commerce and educational authorities
demand. With commerce the individual is a mere speck;
and are there not many to fill the place of the workers
who are labelled "unfit," and "scrap-heap!" Yes, unfit
for the office ; but not unfit for agriculture or handicraft.

This unjust demand by commerce upon the young brain
must end in disaster. It is the outcome of our "record-
breaking" times, and the product of hastening to get
rich. People seem to forget that the first recorded
punishment meted out to man was that from henceforth
he must make his livelihood by the sweat of his brow.
Primitive man works only to such an amount as allows
him to provide for his actual necessities. Laziness is not
always a vice. The commercial world establishes a factory
in some primitive country, and because the natives will
not work in it they are denounced ! And for why ?
Because commerce cannot secure cheap labour and bio-
dividends. Commercial supremacy is not everythino-.
History records the fact that many nations have fallen
and disappeared when their commercial condition was at
its zenith.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 8l

Perhaps some guidance — some food for thought — will
be obtained if we consider the question of Rest from the
adult point of view, and such as will permit us to lessen
the educational strain upon the infant and child brain.
Suppose we consider the number ot years taken up in
sleep and rest by the average man who lives, say, until
he is sixty-five years old. If we take it that the average
man sleeps eight hours per day during sixty-five years,
this means that he will sleep at least twenty-one years and
eight months. But we know that in babyhood, infancy,
childhood, and old age he sleeps from twenty to twelve
hours per day. He sleeps, therefore, about twenty-five
years in a lifetime.

Sleep is "nature's great restorer," and to fully appre-
ciate this fact we have only to consider the very largfe
number of medicines made for the purpose of causing
sleep. More sleep is required to-day than fifty years
ago. Then civilization had not presented us with the
telegraph or telephone; or with the "soothing music"
of street organs, church bells, brass bands, street cries,
and street noises — all influences at work in using up
the brain by its unnecessarily recording these impres-
sions. For very few seem to think that the "quiet" of
the country is comparative, and only the opposite of the
city. Why, therefore, not make the city less noisy and
sleepful ?

Again, if the average man rests eight hours per day,
this means that he rests about twenty-one years and eight
months. But we know that the average man does not
work eight hours per day. He may do so occasionally,
but he makes up for it by working less on other days.
Moreover, he generally takes half an hour for his break-
fast, one hour for dinner, and a few hours for afternoon
tea and other kinds of recreation. He probably works
about three to four hours per diem. The team owner
knows that if he works his horse four days per week, his
horse will live longer and make him more money than if
he works him six days per week. Statists know that if
■we wish to find old people, we must seek for them in
Poor Law and such institutions. No, the "strenuous
life " is mere " moonshine," and is another term for

82 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

"lunatic asylum." In the large cities of America
"hustle, hustle" is the cry of commerce, and of com-
merce only. But it is very far from being the cry of those
who have to treat these mental and physical wrecks, the
result of hustle. " Hustle, hustle " may allow a company
to declare a 20 per cent, dividend, and to rush up shares,
but it steadily works for sterility and other forms of
degeneracy.

This disease of "hustle" — or "Americanitis," as it is
now called — is causing a woeful amount of fooling, hypo-
crisy, and lying. The feeble clerk fixes his hat on the back
of his head> and looks terrible things in the way of hard
work; while the "busy man " (?) always begins his
letters — " Please excuse delay. I have been overwhelmed
with work" ("overwhelmed" is a good word!), and
etids, "Yours in great haste." His only "obsession"
is that he does not use the right words when signing, his
name ! Some call him by two words beginning with D
and F.

Again, a man takes but a few days' holiday each year.
Suppose he takes three weeks of holidays per year from his
twenty-one years and eight months' work, this will give
him rest in the form of one year and three months holiday.
During his sixty-five years he does not work on Sundays,
nor for more than a half-day on Saturdays. Here there
will be a further deduction of four years from his working
years. One often wonders why so many men and women
do not seem to be any better in health for not lesS than
fifty-two days of rest each year and fifty-two half-days.
Again, the average adult man suffers from some "bed-
fast sickness" — that is, acute illness, in contradistinction
to "walking sickness" — on an average of twelve days
per annum. If we deduct this from his working-days, this
takes off eight months and two weeks. But it is well
known that during the average life, infants, children, and
old people suffer much more from sickness than do adults.
Lastly, the average man does not tegin to work until
about his fifteenth year of age, and so we must deduct
another five years of his working life. The facts will
appear clearer arranging them as follows: — In a lifetime
of sixty-five years a man

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 83

Sleeps 8 hours per day, or 21 years and 8 months in 65 years.^
Rests 8 „ 21 „ „

Works 8 „ 21 „ „

In the twenty-one years and eight months we deduct —

For holidays, l year and 3 months.
„ Sundays and half-Saturdays, 4 years and 8 months.
„ Sickness, 8 months.
„ Non- work before the age of 15.

Therefore it follows that he spends ten years six and a
half months in work. I would suggest that the average
man— including real working-men, parasitic man and
woman, and others — works about five years in a lifetime
of sixty-five years. By work, I mean that which a person
must do_ in order to provide himself and his family with the
necessities of life, and either by muscle or brain. One
must therefore here differentiate between work taken for
pleasure's sake and necessity.

In the animal world no work is done except in seeking
and securing food, unless where man has tamed the
animal to work. Again, in plant life little or no work is
performed. Among ourselves, every one is steadily seeking
to secure "an easy job." Every one hopes for that day
to come when he or she shall take "the nose from the
grindstone," and so secure rest. Every one looks forward
to the holiday-time when he can go back to what one may
term a reversal to the savage state. Some, with philo-
sophic mind, look upon an illness, or a broken leg, as a
good opportunity for a beneficial rest. Thus the old
proverb is again proved true — " An illness is a blessing in
disguise."

Rest! No worry; no business; no work; no

telephone, no being "done"! He watches his children
play, and with a sigh, says — "Let them play, their time
will come." He selects the most comfortable seat,
avoiding the uncomfortable one, and finds that nature is
antagonistic to much work. In daily duty he is buoyed
up by the fond hope of rest. When the day's work is
half over he often wishes it were 5.30 p.m., and finds some
justification for the theologian who, wishing to "point to

'^ Sleeps one-third of a lifetime.

7

84 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

better things above," refers to a hereafter life as one
without work or fatigue. So Shakespeare sings — " Sleep,
oh gentle sleep ! — nature's soft nurse"; while Tom Hood
sighs — " Sleep, oh sleep ! Thou heaven on earth to a
weary head."

In the above remarks I do not wish for one moment to
suggest that men and women should not work, nor that
we should cease to flog those many parasites who refuse to
work. Those who are "work-shy" and who are able to
work, and can obtain work, must be made to do their
share ; a demand which has been put into force in Switzer-
land (August 1904). But just as the brain and body of
man is fitted for only a small total of work, so I would plead
that the young person, in that stage where he or she is
engaged in building the brain and body, must be given
a very small amount of brain labour.

CHAPTER XIII.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY :
UNSUITABLE EMPLOYMENT FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

One of the many causes which leads to physical and
mental degeneracy is the employment of young women
and children in factories, workshops, and similar indus-
tries. When the true history of factory, workshop, and
mining labour in this country is written it will be full of
sadness, and will cast a lurid and disagreeable flame upon
parental greed, the degrading desire of employers to get
rich, and upon our Legislature which takes refuge in the
cant expression — '"Legislation must not be in advance
of public opinion ! " Some years ago young women were
permitted to go down into the mines, and to be there
associated with degrading conditions. At the same time
the canting hypocrite protested against the increase of
immorality and an increase of illegitimate births. The
child was then allowed when only five years old to work
in a factory.

At present we are a little better, but even now the
child of twelve years of age can work as a " half-timer."
At the same time some wonder why children do not
advance in education, when these have to go for half a
day to the factory and the other half-day to school !
The pregnant woman can now work full time — that is,
twelve to fourteen hours per day — until within a few
hours or minutes of her confinement. Not only so, but
she can return to the factory in two weeks after her child
has been born. Yet some ask why the number of hospitals
for the treatment of women's diseases increase, and why
so many infants die during their first year of life. The
Registrar-General states that during 1904 no less than
19,627 babies died in England and Wales because they
had been "born prematurely"; while 694 — save the
mark! — died "because of want of breast milk." How
many of these premature births and deaths were due to

85

86 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

pregnant women working in factories and workshops?
Again, according to the Registrar-General, during 1904
no less than 3,667 women died in England and Wales
from " puerperal fever and the accidents of childbirth."
That is, each day no less than 14 women die from
performing a natural function. In Chapter III. I have
given statistics showing the number of deaths of women
from "puerperal fever and accidents of childbirth." If
we wish to secure a fair idea of the actual number — a
number which approaches 20 per day, doctors must be
compelled to carry out the suggestion of the Registrar-
General, where he asks that, when signing a certificate of
the cause of death of a woman whose decease takes place
within one month after her confinement, the fact of confine-
ment should be stated in the certificate. But even if we
accept 14 as the actual number of deaths per day, I
venture to state that if there were one other calling in
which 14 men each day lost their lives there would soon
be a strong demand for a Parliamentary inquiry into so
heavy a death rate. I do not here refer to the sick
rate, the diseased rate, and the permanently maimed rate
following confinements. Is it to be wondered at that many
women now object to undergo the great risks associated
with maternity ? Even insurance companies fight shy of
her, or "load" her with a heavy premium. Surely no
sane person can suggest that a factory or workshop is a
kind of health resort, in which a young girl of 13 or 14
years can lay that foundation of health which will allow
her to become a healthy mother, or to bring up a healthy
child. Moreover, how can the young mother work in the
factory and nurse her infant at the breast ? Would any
woman select a wet-nurse for her child from among those
who work in a factory ? It is not often that a Committee
appointed by Parliament makes a joke, and especially in
connection with a painful subject. Yet one reads of the
Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration (1904)
recommending that a crfeche should be established so that
factory mothers can for a few minutes leave their work
in the factory and suckle their infants ! Fancy any one
being so foolish as to go to a factory to select a wet-
nurse for their child, and especially if the nurse must have

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 87

worked 12 hours daily in a factory! Can we not give
the same care to the pregnant woman as is given to the
pregnant mare, cow, or other animal? When these are
pregnant they are not worked, especially in the latter
months. And when these are giving milk they are given
little or no work. Let us honestly put the following fact
to ourselves : — A milkman brings the milk to our house
and says : " This is good milk, as it has come from a cow
that has been worked during her pregnancy and during
her present condition. Recollect she is not employed in
outdoor work, but in very unhealthy and insanitary
surroundings." Would we use the milk? Much less
would we recommend it to be given to our children. It is
said that one of the reasons why Jewish mothers suckle
their children is that these women refuse to work in
factories. In Switzerland, I am told, a pregnant woman
must not work in a factory for two months before
and two months after her confinement. This is a good
example. Can England not follow it? In England a
pregnant woman can actually work " overtime" in certain
factories and workshops, the ordinary working week
being 60 hours in non-textile factories and 56J in textile
factories. True, she is given a compulsory "holiday" (!)>
on Sundays ; but is it a holiday for her at home ? At
the Creusot Works in France no women over five months
pregnant are permitted to work, and they cannot return
to work without being medically certified. I would sug-
gest that no pregnant nor suckling woman be permitted
to work in a factory or workshop. It will be said that
such a rule would lead to the lessening of the marriage
rate, to the prevention of conception, to the increase of
criminal abortion, and to the neglect and murder of
infants. No doubt it might; but do the present conditions
not bring about these very lapses ?

I firmly believe that reliable statistics can be produced —
such as the sick rate, death rate, maimed rate, and mental
and physical degeneration of mothers and infants — as wilL
prove conclusively that it would be better far, in the long
run, for our nation to put an end to the employment of
such mothers and children. I go further, and contend
that it would give better results, from all standpoints, if

88 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

we introduced Chinese or other coloured labour to take
the place of mothers and children. I have little hope that
such a recommendation will be accepted, as the average
man to-day is as ignorant — sometimes wilfully so — of the
necessary requirements of his wife when pregnant, or
suckling, as is the average dog of its progenitors.
Further, we do not care much for infant life, or the
physical well-being of our nation, when commerce and
trade are in question, as is evidenced by the many
societies and agencies which exist for the protection of
infant life. The human animal is the cheapest in the
market, and is treated accordingly. The statement of the
collier — " Ten pounds for the dead man's wife and twenty
pounds for the insured horse " is a fair description of an
economic fact. The protection of infant life is one of
those sad social conditions which cannot be forced be-
hind a screen with the unwholesome idea of proving the
non-existence of an evil. From the moment of concep-
tion the child — the future citizen — has to run the gauntlet
of many and multitudinous attacks. Some of these I
have referred to in another part of the work. We have
our various laws for protecting the child in the womb.
But why should the lawyer's view — the view of the men
least able to speak upon the subject — rule that the child in
the womb shall be killed when the future mother has to
undergo capital punishment? Why should the lawyers
declare that it is not murder if means be adopted to
prevent the infant from breathing when it is being born?
Why should the lawyers agree that any person, not
necessarily a doctor, can certify a child as "still-born"
when it has not been still-born ?

In 1890 I wrote to a number of superintendents of
cemeteries, and found that at seventy-one Burial Board
cemeteries no less than 6,321 "still-born children" had
been interred. Sir C. Cameron, M.P. , called attention to
these figures in the House of Commons, and it was agreed
that a return be obtained. This return shows that during
1890, at 1,133 Burial Board cemeteries in England and
Wales, 17,335 children supposed to be still-born were
interred, and that 4,569 of these had not been certified by
medical practitioners. This return does not include Scot-

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 89

land or Ireland, nor parish or other burial grounds ; and
as there are about 13,988 benefices in the Church of
England, the number of cemeteries other than Burial
Boards must be very great. Farr estimated the number
of still-births at thirty to forty thousand per annum, when
giving evidence before a Select Committee on the protec-
tion of infant life. England is one of the few European
countries which has not a system of registration of still-
born infants. In 1892 I published a work. Proposed
Registration of Still-bom Infants. The next year a Parlia-
mentary Return was issued showing the laws of foreign
countries bearing upon the subject; and in 1893 ^ gave
evidence before a Select Committee of the Commons
thereon. .

And why should the lawyers have enacted that any
woman acting as a midwife upon a few months' training
is good enough to take sole control of the wife and infant
of the working-man, when she would not be permitted to
attend the confinement of a well-to-do person? Why
should the Post Office Life Assurance Department refuse
absolutely to insure the life of any child under the age of
eight years, while the ordinary life offices are permitted to
insure a child under five years for a sum not exceeding
;^6, while those between the ages of five and ten can be
insured for a sum not exceeding £10? It is questionable
if any child under the age of ten should be insurable. Let
the insurance be made so that encouragement be given to
keep the child alive, and the money be paid only on condi-
tion that it live until a fixed age. As regards the eff'orts
now being made to check our heavy infant death-rate, the
action taken by Alderman B. Broadbent, of Huddersfield,
is worthy of notice. He promised to pay £1 to each
mother residing in the ward which he represented in the
City Council, if the parent kept her infant alive for one
year. He is assisted by a committee of women, who help
the mothers with advice as to feeding and hygiene. He
also calls at their homes. His results show that, while
the death-rate of neighbouring districts was 122 per
1000 births, 144 for the whole of England, and 150 for
Huddersfield, the infant death-rate in his. district was
reduced to 54 per 1000. Thus he saved 92 infants in

90 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

twelve months. It is to be hoped that his efforts will bear
good results, and that they will not show that some
English mothers have to be bribed into keeping their
infants alive, and for twenty shillings. If one refers to
the various Acts for the preservation of wild birds, fish,
oysters, crabs, lobsters, and salmon, they will perhaps be
surprised to learn that the young of these animals aYe
protected more than are human children.

Referring to the employment of women and children
more fully, one must go to the Factory Act, 1901. By it
a "child" is defined as a person under the age of fourteen,
a " young person " one over fourteen and under eighteen
years, and a "woman" one over eighteen years of age.
A person under fourteen years of age cannot (with the
following exceptions) be employed in a factory or work-
shop. These exceptions are — If a boy or a girl under
twelve years was, at the passing of the Act, employed in a
factory, such can go on being employed as a " half-timer";
second, a person under fourteen and over twelve can work
in a factory as a half-timer if such present a certificate of
fitness from the factory surgeon and the educational
authority; third, a half-timer can work as a full day on
alternate days or half a day on each day, and such half-
timers can work for 26J to 31 J hours per week.

During 1903, 42,774 children under fourteen- years of
age were employed in factories and workshops as half-
timers in the United Kingdom. 77,376 between the ages of
thirteen and fourteen years were employed as full-timers,
and 239,125 who were over fourteen and under sixteen
as full-timers — that is, 359,275 under sixteen years were
employed in factories and workshops.

If a child over thirteen years has passed the standard
fixed by the local educational authority, he or she can be"
classed as a "young person" (under eighteen years), and
can be employed as a full-timer.

During 1903 the 1,976 factory surgeons examined
359,27s children, young persons and women, and found,
at least 3,947 unfit to work.

It is a disadvantage to our nation to permit boys and
girls under fourteen to work in factories and workshops.
Such work cannot fit them for either marriage or parent-

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 9 1

hood. As before stated, I think that married women
should not be allowed to work in factories. How can a
married woman, with or without a family, find time and
strength for factory work? This is an important ques-
tion, as we depend as a nation largely upon the working
classes for the coming race. How are the wives of
working-men treated ? If there is a slave — white or black
— in this world, it is the wife of the working-man. Look
what she must do. She has to rise in the morning about
six o'clock, get the breakfast, wash and dress her children
and perhaps send them to school, prepare the dinner for
husband and family, clean the house, wash and iron the
clothes, get the tea ready, make or patch clothes, wash
. the children and put them to bed. Along with all these
multitudinous affairs she has to do the shopping and
prepare for the coming day. Add to these that she may
be pregnant, or suckling a baby, or nursing a sick child —
an event requiring almost her entire day. Has she any
time to look after herself or to take care of her health ?
Has she any real holidays ? Perchance a change of
residence only — no holiday-time, no escape from her work.
Such a picture is not complete if we fail to note the fact
that the husband may be sick or out of work, and that the
wife may have to go out washing or cleaning. Those who
think this an overdrawn picture, let them try the work and
practically decide. If she work in the factory, or is preg-
nant, she can work until her labour is upon her. If she
be recently confined, she must return to the factory four
weeks after her confinement. She is not granted the
privilege — if privilege it be — given to such women in
Portugal, where, if a factory employ over fifty women, a
creche for babies must be attached, and the mother given
time to suckle her child. Nor is she as well off as are her
sisters in Norway, where pregnant women are not per-
mitted to work in factories within four weeks before
confinement, and where women are not allowed at any
time to work in certain industries.

These wives of the working classes are expected — by
fools — to bring forth healthy children! But how can
they ? If they have worked in a factory from the age of
twelve or fourteen, how can they even be healthy ? Is it

92 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

any wonder that such women suffer from uterine troubles,
varicose veins, and labour diseases? We are told by
some clergy that hospitals are the outcome of Christianity.
Perhaps it would be more honest to look a little ahead, and
study the causes which produce the diseases treated in the
hospitals. Perhaps the time will soon come when the
Employers' Liability Act will be extended to infants in the
■womb; and when these are born mentally or physically
deformed, the employer will be liable. And why not?
The employer of pregnant women, for work except of the
lightest kind, is one of the greatest enemies to our
nation.

CHAPTER XIV.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY r
THE ABUSE OF ALCOHOL.

When discussing the action of alcohol as a cause of
physical deterioration and of mental degeneration, one — if
honest — must be careful to avoid extreme views. To the
non-medical mind the term "alcohol" means any sub-
stance with alcohol in it, but with others the term is more
definite. Thus, by "absolute alcohol" we mean ethylic
alcohol, which is a colourless liquid containing not more
than one, or at rtlost two per cent, of water. Then there
is " rectified spirit," consisting of alcohol with lo per cent,
of water; and " proof spirit," consisting of rectified spirit
and water, 49 per cent, being rectified spirit. Brandy
contains about 45 per cent, of alcohol, and the other
alcoholic drinks a decreasing quantity. "Methylated
spirit" consists of rectified spirit mixed with "wood
spirit " — 10 per cent, of the latter. Amylic alcohol is
known as "fusel oil." The amount of alcohol in wines
varies from 6 to 25 per cent., cider and perry 5 to 9 per
cent., beer from 3 to 8 per cent. It is calculated that one
pint of beer contains one ounce of alcohol; therefore
three glasses of beer would be more than sufficient to con-
sume during twenty-four hours.

In his work on Diseases of Modern Life, published in
1875, Sir B. W. Richardson, M.D., called public attention
to the evil results of alcohol. He said he could find "no
place for alcohol as a necessity of life." This applies to
many other things in life when we choose to consider them
from the primitive standpoint of sheer necessity. When
speaking of it from the physiological standpoint, he says —
" In whatever form it enters, whether as spirit, wine, or
ale, matters little when its specific influence is kept in
view. It is as alcohol in its pure form, as the ardent
spirits of the old writers, the ethylic alcohol of modern
chemists, and the basis of all our common intoxicating

93

g4 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

drinks, that it is best studied. To say this man drinks
only ale, that man drinks only wine, while a third drinks
spirits, is merely to say, when the apology is unclothed,
that all drink the same danger. . . . The true place of
alcohol is clear — it is an agreeable temporary shroud.
The savage, with the mansions of his soul unfurnished,
buries his restless energy under its shadow. The civilized
man, overburdened with mental labour, or with engross-
ing care, seeks the same shade ; but it is shade, after all,
in which, in exact proportion as he seeks it, the seeker
retires from perfect natural life." This writer was the first
to state that as much as two ounces — about four table-
spoonfuls — of ethylic alcohol could be taken daily by a
healthy man without any apparently ill results to his body
or mind. Since the time of publishing his work more
delicate means have been found whereby the study of
alcohol on the human system can be carried out, and now
German and Swiss physicians state that one and a quarter
ounces — three tablespoonfuls — per day is probably a harm-
less quantity, but that the regular use of this quantity is
not to be recommended. Of late statistics have been
produced by the life assurance offices which divide the
assured lives into "abstainers" and "non-abstainers," to
show that those who abstain live longer than those who
do not. These statistics must, however, be accepted with
caution.

Thus we come to recognize "teetotallers," '^' temperate,"
"intemperate," "steady drinkers," "soakers," and "in-
ebriates " when we consider the action of alcohol on the
human body. I, for one, think that, as a medicine, alcohol
is a very useful drug, and I should not care to be treated
in a serious illness by a physician who was possessed with
the dogma that the use of alcohol is always and ever bad.
He is a much honester physician who will prescribe alcohol
for the sick, as alcohol, than the "teetotal" physician who
recommends sal volatile — a drug containing as much
alcohol as does whisky — or prescribes "rectified spirits"
in an eight-ounce bottle with a little burnt sugar to dis-
guise the colour ! As an ordinary beverage, also, a glass of
good beer or ale, or of good claret, will always be a useful
drink for those who do not care for water or milk. Many

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 95

seem to forget that the Creator has made man a thirsty-
animal, his body being- made up, in t-wo-thirds of its
■weight, of water; and that, as he loses some four to six
pints of water daily through his skin, lungs, kidneys, and
other organs, he must replace this waste. It is a great
pity that this country's Parliament cannot use its power to
compel the supply to the people of a good, wholesome ale,
while vigorous efforts should be made to re-introduce the
old custom of the home-brewing of good ale.

The study of the action of alcohol from the disease-pro-
ducing standpoint is very different from its consideration
as a beverage or drug use. But here, again, too-ardent
reformers often put "the cart before the horse." When
we come to discuss the causes of alcoholism, or the
diseased condition termed inebriety, it is very difficult to
know whether inebriety is caused by alcoholic excess, or is
not so caused. A great many honest persons contend that
the inebriate has not become so because of the alcohol he
has taken, and that inebriety is caused by something else.
I have known persons take alcohol to excess to kill pain ;
to kill remorse ; to produce sleep ; because of environ-
ment ; because of heredity influences ; and because of
compulsory work. It is not too much to contend that if
a respectable man with his wife and family had to go
from a respectable to a slum neighbourhood, he and some
others of them would "drown" their cares and trials by
an immoderate use of alcohol. It is not too much to
contend that the person whose forbears have been alco-
holics will be thereby so weakened that he or she will not
have sufficient will-power to say " enough " when more is
offered or demanded. And the same is true of pain,
incurable disease, and sleeplessness. I had once a patient
who was suffering from advanced phthisis, and who, only
with the view of working as long as he could to protect
and provide for his wife and family, consumed one pint of
whisky daily. He had no desire for alcohol, but he used it
just as would the mechanic who got work out of an engine
by burning alcohol instead of coal or using electric force.

It is not too much to contend that the person who must
carry out some public engagement, such as that of an
actor, opera-singer, or physician, is driven by a blood-

96 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

sucking public to carry out his or her engagement, though
nature craves for rest and quiet. Fancy a public who had
booked seats to hear an actor or singer being disappointed
because the actor or singer said that he was ill. "Why
doesn't he tell the truth ^nd say he was drunk?" the
public — the honest public ! — shout. I fancy there are some
who still remember the grossly malicious comments
regarding one singer who absolutely refused to sing
when his voice was not in proper form. Consequently,
with the view of not disappointing the public, the actor or
singer drinks a tumblerful of champagne, goes on the
stage, and sings with an artificial excitement; the audience i
applauding, having secured their big pennyworth, while
the performer retires more dead than alive. But he has
" saved his reputation " from a lying public, all the same.
My contention is supported by Mr. T. Holmes, Police
Court Missionary in London. (Pictures and Problems from
London Police Courts.) He says — " Drink, they say, is at
the bottom of all the crime and misery among the poor.
\, who am a life teetotaller, a fervent advocate of
teetotalism, assure you that drink is not the cause — nor
even a cause ; it is merely one of the effects. Drink does
undoubtedly, in the well-to-do, bring people down from
sham respectability to open vice. . . . But drink, the
problem of drink, must be looked on as an effect of filthy
garrets, monotonous labour, and starvation wages. We
breed our drunkards just as we manufacture our criminals.
The beginning of the cure, I feel confident, is a tre-
mendous exodus from the poisonous slums and alleys to
the open country."

Again, the Lunacy Commissioners (England) in their
fifty-ninth Annual Report, when discussing the causes
of insanity, report as follows :—" Intemperance as an
assigned cause of insanity appears in 22.7 per cent, of
male admissions, and 9.4 per cent, of the female; the
rates for "private" patients being — males 16.7, and
females 8.6; and for "pauper" patients — males 23.6, and
females 9.6. It should be borne in mind that such in-
temperance is frequently as much an effect, of brain weak-
ness as a cause, and the intermingling of these renders it
impossible to arrive at precise conclusions. In any case, it

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 9/

cannot be denied that alcohol is a brain poison, and it is
therefore incumbent to show what part it plays in
insanity." Attention is also called to the fact that the
Medical Superintendents of Asylums, in stating the causes
of insanity, and particularly of the part played by alcohol
as a cause, vary very markedly. Thus, in county and
borough asylums the proportion varies from 3 to 40 per
cent., and from 3.1 to 25.3 per cent. With such varia-
tions it is very difficult to arrive at an exact finding as to
the alleged causation of insanity by alcohol.

If we take the Commissioners' Reports for England and
Ireland, we find that the yearly average (for the four years
1899 and 1903) number of insane admitted to asylums,
where intemperance in alcohol was either the " pre-dis-
posing" or "exciting" cause, amounted to 4,308 (males
2,309, females 999), of a total of 20,734 admitted. The
Scottish Commissioners do not, unfortunately, give any
table as to the causes of their insane. The Irish Com-
missioners state that 310 were admitted into their District
Asylums during 1904, where the cause of insanity was
intemperance in alcohol.

These facts go to show that the public are not well
advised in holding that alcoholic excess is frequently a
cause of insanity. I think a perusal of our legislation
relating to habitual inebriates goes to show that the
mental degeneracy view is gradually gaining ground.
The Inebriates Act, 1898, empowers Courts to commit
two kinds of inebriates to detention — (a) inebriates con-
victed of crime caused or contributed to by drink (Sec. i);
and inebriates who have been summarily convicted three
times for drunkenness within one year (Sec. 2). Criminal
inebriates may be sent to a State Reformatory, or to a
certified Inebriate Reformatory. Police cases may be sent
only to a certified Inebriate Reformatory, from whence
they can be transferred to a State Inebriate Reformatory.

Dr. Branthwaite, Inspector of Reformatories under the
Inebriates Acts, sajf^^in his Annual Report that up to
1902, 618 persons hac^ieen detained under Section 2. Of
this number 435 were \temenable and hopeful"; 71 "re-
fractory and violent"; \ insane; 41 mental degenerates;
2 epileptics ; and 24 too vijd to give much hope for refor-

98 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

mation. Any one with practical knowledge knows very-
well that no absolute cures, in the honest meaning of the
word, can be expected. How could there be with such a
class of degenerates of the Jane Cakebrea<^ and Tottie Fay
class ? It is usual to read of County Councils deploring the
fact that these Reformatory patients are not cured. Even
General Booth deplores the fact, and states that he can
cure them. Does he refer to confirmed inebriates, or to
occasional drunkards ? If so, why is he not given a trial ?
The Inspector reports — " It is to be expected, as the third
division shows, that a fairly large percentage of our
inmates prove to be insane. In many instances the
drunkenness for which they are sent to us is caused by
insanity, and in others, again, the insanity is caused by long
continued habits of drinking. A few persons who have
been committed to Reformatories for drunk and disorderly
conduct have really proved to be certifiable lunatics — a
condition which only becomes recognizable after complete
withdrawal of liquor. Such persons would certainly be-
come excited, quarrelsome, and dangerous under the effect
of even small doses of alcohol." Of those committed to
State Inebriate Reformatories, lo per cent, were insane,
70 per cent, borderland cases, and 20 per cent, sane, but
bad.

As regards the third class of institutions for inebriates
— that is, "Retreats," these contain two kinds of persons:
(a) those who go when they like and leave when they like ;
and (V) those who sign a statement before a magistrate
that they wish to go in and stay for a definite time. It is
said that 25 to 30 per cent, of these patients are cured of
their disease. Here one may say plainly, that considering
the fearful amount of private drinking, especially among
women, it is very wrong in our Legislature not permitting
a person, who is drinking heavily and almost continuously,
to be placed in a retreat, even when he or she objects to
go ; provided that a certificate signed by two medical
practitioners and two relatives is o^^ined. This phase of
inebriety has been met in some oi^r countries. (See A
Collection of British, Colonial, a^ Foreign Statutes re-
lating to the Penal and ReformatoL,' Treatment of Habitual
Inebriates. \ ,,

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 99

I am informed that the Glasgow Corporation has
introduced a Bill into the House of Commons to amend
the Inebriates Act, so as to put into operation the above
proposal : the private inebriate being detained in an insti-
tution on an order of a magistrate in court, and at the
request of the relatives.

It is only in medical practice among families that the
physician sees so many cases of educated men and women
who are slowly but surely drinking themselves to death.
For instance, a good woman is neglecting herself, hus-
band, children, and house. Why not quietly and without
any blatant fuss, and without any rant about " the liberty
of the subject," confine this patient for some months ?
Let such, if they wish, enter under a nom de plume. Why
do we have smallpox, cholera, plague, and other infectious
diseases patients removed and detained in our hospitals ?
Inebriety is a, disease just as is typhoid fever or small-
pox, and with more widespread disaster. These people
demand our pity, not our curses and kicks. Our treat-
ment of them is inhuman, and unworthy of even professing
Christians.

I have for so far discussed the action of alcohol upon
the brain and as a cause of mental degeneracy. As regards
its action upon the physical health, it is supposed that
some 66,000 die from diseases caused by its action each
year in England and Wales. But there is now a perennial
joke to the effect that if hospital authorities published
reliable statistics regarding the actual causes of the
diseases of their patients a large number of subscribers
would cease to give financial support. It is, further, a
perennial joke that no physician dare state the actual
cause of an inebriate's death in private practice without
being "boycotted"; and if Poor Law authorities gave
honest returns, a new body of "Passive Resisters"
would spring into being and refuse to pay their poor rate.
All which is very sadj and shows that truth is a substance
which is most unsuitable diet for the many, and that
almost all wish it to be dispensed in the smallest possible
doses, and, if possible, given in the pill form and agree-
ably sugar-coated !

During 1905, ;^i64, 167,941 was expended on alcohol

8

lOO RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

in the United Kingdom, this being equal to £2 '5^- "id.
per head, infants included, or ;^i8 19s. gjd. per family of
five ; while 36 per cent, of the pubUc revenue is obtained
from the taxation of alcohol — ;^39, 2 18,000. If our nation
could be made a strictly temperate nation, then physical
and mental diseases would be lessened by 50 per cent.
On the other hand, I fear that if the people desert good
light beers and wines they will resort to the chemists'
shops and become debased drug consumers.

CHAPTER XV.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY:
UNDESIRABLE ALIEN IMMIGRANTS, AND EMIGRATION OF
OUR " FIT."

It is difficult, if not impossible, to know how many aliens
and undesirable aliens there are in England, because the
nationality of the person is decided by the country in
which the person is born, because so many aliens change
their name when residing in England, and because it is so
easy to become a naturalized Englishman — all of which
savour of the ass claiming to be a horse on account of its
having been born in a stable ! It is to be regretted that
the English Lunacy Commission Reports do not divide the
inmates of the asylums into English, Scotch, Irish and
other nationalities, and I would suggest that this proposal
be adopted. The word "alien" is used by the Scotch
Commissioners in a somewhat misleading manner, as they
refer only to English and Irish insane. Thus, during
1904, they state that 36 pauper lunatics were removed
from Scotland because they had no settlement or domicile
in that country. Nine of these were sent to England and
27 to Ireland.

The immigration of diseased, insane, criminals, and
pauper persons into this country is a point which has not
been sufficiently noted. On July ist, 1903, there were
817 pauper alien lunatics in the English asylums ; how
many outside asyluhis we cannot say. In the five years
ending March 1903 there were 13,114 alien criminals sent
to prisons in England ; in 1904, 4,833. It is to be hoped
the Alien Act which came into operation on January 1905
will help to exclude further mental and physical un-
desirables. In 1903 the American Government, with a
view to see how many alien " undesirables" were detained
in their institutions, obtained a valuable return. It showed
that there were 44,985 alien inmates detained in charitable,
penal, or insane institutions. Of these 20,485 were insane,
and 9,825 were criminals. As regards the accumulation

lOI

I02 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

of our own mentally unfit in our own country, owing to
other nations rightly refusing to take them, I would
refer to a statement made by Dr. Macpherson (Lunacy
Commissioner, Scotland), where he refers to the increase
of lunacy in Ireland. He says: "Nor is there any
evidence for the belief that only the best — that is, the
most fit in every respect — emigrate. Emigration in
Ireland is determined by the exigencies of the social
conditions, and biologically is a random selection." This
is not accurate. At each of the ports in America (and
Canada) the Government keep up a large "Marine
Hosj3ital and Immigration Service. " Each alien immigrant
wishing to land is compelled to submit to a searching
medical examination. As an "attempt to land" an
undesirable alien is met by a fine of ;^20 for each attempt,
the European steamship companies have those aliens
carried in their ships examined, these companies appoint-
ing experienced physicians in Europe to examine all before
embarkation, and to reject all diseased. Many thousands
are thus rejected by the steamship companies each year.
This is not a " random selection."^

Further, during the year ending June 1905 the number
of alien immigrants refused admission at the seaports of
the States amounted to 11,480, and in addition to these
98 were deported who had resided in the States for one
year, 519 two years, and 228 for three years, these having
become a public charge. Of the 11,480, 38 were idiots,
92 insane, 7,898 paupers, 2,198 suffering from disease,
39 convicts, 3 polygamists, 24 prostitutes, 4 procurers
of prostitutes, 19 assisted immigrants, and 1,164 contract
labourers. In addition to the above, immigration stations
are established along the Canadian and Mexican borders
of the States, some 1,676 having been here debarred
during the year. During the last fourteen years about
60,000 aliens have been debarred, 67 per cent, being, or
were likely to become, paupers, 17 per cent, were contract
labourers, and 13 per cent, were suffering from disease.

In 1903 the American Immigration Authorities instituted

' During 1905 the U.S.A. expended 1,508,991 dollars in the adminis-
tration of their Alien Acts. 27,300 dollars were paid as fines by European
steamship companies for importing diseased aliens.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 103

a census to show how many aliens were inmates of penal,
a^lum, and charitable institutions. It was found that there
were 30,000 alien paupers and about 10,000 alien criminals.

Another excuse for the startling increase of insanity
in Ireland has been given by the Registrar-General for
Ireland in his evidence before the Royal Commission on
the Care of the Feeble-minded. He said that the increase
is partly due to the sending back from America of Irish
insane who had immigrated to the States. Such an excuse
will not stand inquiry. During the one year 1905, of
the total aliens landed in the States only 38 idiots and 92
insane persons were debarred from landing. Of this
number there were 17 Irish idiots and insane, 20 Hebrews,
27 Italian, 13 English, 2 Scotch, and 13 German. (From
1892 to 1905, 89 idiots and 300 insane were debarred on
attempting to land.) Again, in the same year 96 aliens
were returned in one year after landing, 519 in two years
after landing, and 228 in three years after landing. Third,
of the total inmates of charitable, insane, and penal
institutions in the States in 1903 no less than 30 per cent,
of the insane inmates were Irish, 9 per cent. English, ij^
per cent. Scotch, 24 per cent. German, 3^^^ per cent.
Italian, 5 per cent. Hebrew, 3 per cent. Polish, and 10
per cent. Scandinavian. This would go to show that the
Irish were not deported back to Ireland. Of the total in
these institutions 34 per cent, have been less than 10 years
in the States, and 66 per cent, more than 10 and less than
20 years. Fourth, there are no grounds for contending
that the Irish insane deported from America are landed in
Ireland ; in fact, many are landed in England and Scot-
land. No doubt some so landed are sent back to their
domicile of birth if they have not established domicile
in England or Scotland. The above statistics lend weight
to the prevaleiht idea that the Irish authorities have for
years been quietly deporting their "undesirables" to Eng-
land, Scotland and America, This is not right ; for, let
us hold what views we like regarding " desirable" aliens,
all honest politicians believe that each country should look
after its own insane, its own criminals, its own paupers,
and its own diseased.

It was thought by some who used their best efforts to

104 RACE culture; or, race suicide?

further the passing of the Alien Act, 1905, that England
would no longer be made by Europe the "dumping
ground " of undesirables ; but the Act contains, so many
loopholes that it is, as yet, of little value. Thus, aliens
travelling first saloon are not examined; second, second*
class passengers may be excused any examination if the
shipping company enters into a bond with the Home
Secretary stating that they will not land any undesirables ;
third, a ship landing 20 or fewer third-class aliens is
npt inspected ; fourth, an alien who is possessed of ^^5
can land ; fifth, an alien can borrow this ;^5 from any
one, passing it off as his own ; sixth, the alien, if a third-
class trans-migrant, can travel first-class on the ship and
so evade inspection ; and seventh, those aliens who are
sentenced by a judge must serve their sentence in
•English gaols — and so at the expense of the taxpayer —
before being deported. Such an Act is a farce. In the first
three months of 1906 only 168 were refused leave to land.

The above facts show how England can be made the
dumping ground of other nations sol that the latter may
get rid of their undesirable class. 'jThey also show how
this country is steadily losing sotde of its best artisan
class. The average Englishman seems to be quite
oblivious to these two facts. The foreigner "tickles" him
and flatters him by referring to " Britain's greatness," that
"Britannia rules the waves," that she is "the friend ofi
the foreigner fighting for liberty," and so on ! This may
be very well, but if this gross flattery blinds the English-!
man to facts and prevents him from seeing that race!
instinct and race preservation are his first, and sometimes I
his only duty, he will some day open his sleepy eyes to
some very unpleasant facts. Those who wish to study
how other nations deal with this great question can
obtain some information from my monograph, issued in
1905^ T/ie Undesirable Alien: from the Medical Standpoint.

Dr. Macpherson states that in the last twenty years
1,199,098 persons emigrated from Ireland, about 90 per
cent, going to the United States of America, those
emigrating being of the reproductive age. In other
words, the unfit or social refuse are compelled to remain
at home, America taking the best or " fit,"

CHAPTER XVI.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY:
THE USE OF ABORTION DRUGS, ETC.

"There is no wealth but life. That country is the richest which
nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings." —
RusKiN, Unto this Last.

I CONTEND that a considerable number of children who do
not die from poisoning by abortion drugs when in the
womb have their health and nervous system so poisoned
that they may have their brain and nervous system per-
manently injured. The child in the womb is just as much
under surrounding influences^as it is when outside the
womb. \ts feeding 'vs\ the womb may be so bad that it is
certain to be a mental or physical weakling. It is also
influenced by diseases, such as syphilis and tuberculosis;
in fact, it may be said that the child in the womb may
suffer from many of the diseases which attack it in after-
life. (See my work, Causes and Treatment of Abortion.)
Some drugs also poison it, such as lead, strychnine, etc.
In practice one can see many children who are born weak,
and remain weak, because their mothers have taken large
doses of abortion drugs. The influence of drugs in caus
ing mental weakness in the child may be indirect, as by
causing premature labour. During 1904 in England and
Wales, 19,627 children died because they had been
" prematurely born."

The many demands made by supposed respectable
married women upon medical men to perform criminal
abortion drives home with force my contention that, if the
public wish doctors to be a respectable body of men,
doctors must be protected from all lowering competition,
and be made independent of that malicious gossip which
is frequently due to the refusal of the doctor to murder
the infant in the womb. It is customary to say that our
law judges must be well paid and pensioned, and protecte4
from all actions at law; yet doctors have the power of

lOS

I06 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

doing very much greater evil than have judges, and doing
it without being found out. Therefore doctors should not
be placed in a position of servitude to the public, but
should be the medical advisers to the public. But if they
are poor and needy — as many are — the danger is that in
abortion work "my poverty, but not my will" may give
consent.

Last year the Public Health Committee of one- of the
largest cities in England published statistics showing that
the birth-rate was lowest in the -wealthiest portions of the
city. The birth-rate varied from 42.4 per 1000 of the
population in the working-class wards down to 19.8 in the
wealthy wards! If, therefore, a nation has its population
recruited, not from those who are physically, mentally,
financially able to have and to bring up the best stock, but
from the poorer classes, what can be expected of the
coming race ? Nothing but evil. No breeder of good
cattle would adopt a course which would injure or degrade
his stock. No nation can survive if its population be
recruited from slumdom.

It is strange that the British public are so willing
to allow its daily press to be used as a medium for the
advertising of drugs and other nostrums which kill
their children, make many women invalids, and so
poison the children in the womb that they show the
deleterious effects of these drugs in after-life — not only on
their physical, but in their mental condition. Very few
have any idea of the amount of national taxes collected
upon patent and proprietary nostrums. In 1830 the 5s.
annual licence authorizing persons to sell such nostrums
amounted to ;^3,786, and in 1894 to ;£^7,56i. In i860
;^43,692 was contributed to our national revenue by the
sale of stamps for patent and proprietary nostrums, and in
189s this amounted to ;^235,253. Quack politicians say
that the nostrum-vendors are too strong to allow of the
repeal of the Medical Stamp Acts. The Chemist and
Druggist says that the people of the United Kingdom
yearly consume 178 tons of pills, or 5,643,961 pills — many
guaranteed to "remove all female obstructions." It is
rather humiliating to know that Great Britain is the only
European nation which makes a profit by the sale of

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 107

patent medicines; even Ireland is not degraded with this
tax.

I would here suggest that a great influence could be
brought to bear upon young married people who use
abortion drugs and refuse to have any family, if those of
their relatives who have money or property to leave
refused to leave it to married sons who have no children.

It may be thought by the ignorant that the Act to
suppress indecent advertisements (July 24th, 1889) might
meet the question of advertising abortion and similar
nostrums. It does not do so; in fact, a perusal of this
Act shows that it has been drafted so as to avoid expressly
this advertising. It refers to affixing on urinals and de-
livering in the street, or showing in windows, indecent
literature or pictures. For many years the medical pro-
fession has demanded legislation, but evidently "the
powers that be" are too strong in and outside Parlia-
ment to encourage us to hope for any purer state of
affairs.

The question of the fall in the birth-rate in this country
is now receiving close attention. In 1904 Dr. J. W.
Taylor, of Birmingham, with rare courage, called attention
to this subject, while more lately Drs. Newsholme and
Stevenson (1906) have brought the subject before the
Royal Statistical Society. It is an important question,
because medical opinion is beginning to agree that abor-
tions and miscarriages — criminal and non-criminal — lead
to cancer of the womb and neighbouring parts, as fre-
quently those portions of the conception left behind in the
womb undergo a retrograde or degenerative change. It
is also true that a large percentage of sterile women —
voluntary and artificial — suff"er from fibroid tumours of the
womb. There is no good to be gained in asserting that it
is right to cheat, and especially to cheat nature.

Suggestion. — That it be made illegal for any person to
advertise the use of any drugs for the purpose of causing
premature labour. It has been said that criminal abortion
is now in England a national institution, and that almost
all daily and weekly papers devote much space to adver-
tisements relating to abortion drugs.

CHAPTER XVII.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY:
VENEREAL DISEASES.

"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." — Old Book.

"The reputable physician who shall write a book upon sexual matters
for popular reading would immediately be swooped down upon by that
stench-in-the-nostrils of broad-minded men — the multitudinous medico-
ethical ass, whose rancorous voice and flamboyant ears are always in
evidence." — Frank Lydson, M.D., in The Diseases of Society.

No less than 344 persons were admitted, on an average for
each of the four years, to the asylums in England and
Ireland, the predisposing or exciting cause of their insanity
being venereal disease.

It is impossible to supply accurate statistics relating to
venereal diseases in the United Kingdom, as there is an
immense organized hypocrisy and a well-understood con-
spiracy of silence regarding the subject. If the committees
of our voluntary hospitals ceased misleading the public,
and would publish the actual causes of the diseases which
the patients suffer from, full particulars could be obtained;
but it is stated that if they did so, the public would with-
draw their subscriptions. It is unfortunate that at present
all medical statistics relating to deaths and diseases due
to alcoholism and venereal diseases are a source of joke, and
are absolutely unreliable and wilfully misleading. Fournier
states that of all hospital patients in Paris 15 to 19 per
cent, were of venereal origin. Morrow places the per-
centage at the New York hospitals at 10 per cent, of the
total; Lane in London at 33 per cent, of the out-patients;
while in Continental hospitals the percentage of women
patients suffering from gonorrhoea is from 20 to 25.
Prostitution and venereal diseases are interchangeable
terms, for there is always venereal disease where there is
prostitution. Morrow (Social Diseases and Marriage)
states that in St. Petersburg 83 per cent, of prostitutes
suffer from syphilis; in Berlin 50 per cent, of prostitutes

108

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 109

have gonorrhoea constantly, and it is estimated that ther^
are 150,000 persons suffering from syphilis. In Paris and
Buda-Pesth the disease rate is very high. In New Yorl^
City 200,000 persons suffer from syphilis. It is also to be
noted that the clandestine prostitute, or "privateer," is
more liable to disease than is the "professional."

A reference to the Annual Reports of the Surgeons-
General of the British Army and Navy give us some idea
of the terrible amount of venereal disease there present.

During the year 1901, of 100,811 troops (Army) stationed
in the United Kingdom, there were —

1,936 admissions for primary syphilis.

988 ,, soft chancre.

1,907 ,, secondary syphilis.

5,794 ,, gonorrhoea.

That is, 10,625 "admissions" in twelve months.

Of the British Army in India and of 60,838 troops, there
were admitted to hospital —

2,021 admissions for primary syphilis.
3,921 ,, soft chancre.

3,544 ,, secondary syphilis.

7,303 ,, gonorrhoea.

That is, 16,789 admissions in twelve months.

Of European troops stationed in other parts of the
Empire (fifteen stations) there were admitted to hospital —
655 admissions for primary syphilis.
1,488 ,, soft chancre.

842 ,, secondary syphilis.

3,258 ,, gonorrhoea.

In the Royal Navy, with 98,410 men afloat, there were —
3,293 persons treated for primary syphilis.
2,110 ,, ,, secondary syphilis.

5,790 ,, ,, gonorrhoea.

That is, 11,193 persons.

It is to be noted that the term "cases," or "admis-
sions," does not refer in the Army Returns to persons.
Further, it must not be taken for granted that all the
venereal patients are cured, as the average stay in
hospital is about thirty days, and few continue treatment
after dismissal. The Army statistics do not include

no RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

officers ; those of the Navy do ; nor coloured troops, nor
the complications and diseases following and caused by
venereal diseases. It is calculated that the Army lost
514,855 days' active duty owing to venereal diseases
among the troops, the sick rate being about 11 2. 2 per
1000 men in one year.

Supposing these sailors and soldiers had been suffering
from plague, cholera, or smallpox, the daily papers would
have spread such facts broadcast, and questions would
have been asked in Parliament. But no such questions
are asked about venereal diseases, chiefly because we are
cowards ; we do not wish to save thousands of children from
death and disease, and are afraid of Mrs. Grundy. We
know that very few of these men are really cured, and
that they come home, go ashore, and wander about spread-
ing the disease broadcast, and by giving it to nursemaids
and others are the means of carrying venereal disease to
children in private families. The Registrar-General, in his
Sixty-sixth Annual Report, states that in one year, in
England and Wales, 986 males and 843 females died from
syphilis, and 12 males and 13 females from gonorrhoea, a
total of 2,755. These statistics are much below the mark.
What of the 19,081 children who died because they were
born before full time ? These figures refer only to those
who die ; but what of the immense total who are alive
but suffering from the effects of venereal disease? It is
interesting to note the amount of venereal diseases which
came to light, for the year 1902, in the French Army.
There were 485,207 officers, non-commissioned officers
and men in the Home Service, and 77,185 in the Foreign.
The following are the statistics : —

Home Service.

Syphilis - 3,024 6.2 per 1000.

Soft chancre - 1,071 2.2 ,,

Gonorrhoea - 8,722 17.9 ,, =26.3 per 1000.

Foreign Service.
Syphilis - - 1,219 15.8 per 1000.
Soft chancre - 1,209 '5-7 d
Gonorrhoea - 2,986 38.7 ,, =70.2 per 1000.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. Ill

Under syphilis is included prinjary, secondacy, and
tertiary. The figures relate to persons, not admissions.
The British statistics do not include tertiary syphilis.

If reference be made to the Fifty-ninth Report of the
Commissioners in Lunacy (1905), Table 22 shows the
influence of venereal diseases in causing insanity. In the
yearly average for five years the condition of unsound
mind in 489 persons was due to venereal diseases. Again,
Table 14 refers to deaths of lunatics from general paralysis
of the insane (G.P.I.), and points out that of a total of
9,288 deaths in asylums, no less than 1,665 deaths were
due to general paralysis of the insane. It is now held
that the chief cause of general paralysis of the insane is
syphilis. Mott, I think, states that from 25 to 40 per
cent, of insanity is due to syphilis.

As bearing upon the devastating action of venereal
disease upon children, Fournier says — "Syphilis is the
essential murderer of those young in years ; it is the
veritable tomb of infants ; it is the cause of death before
birth, at the moment of birth, after birth, within the first
week of birth, or it may await the first year. Syphilis,
alcoholism, and tuberculosis constitute the triad of the
contemporaries." He gives the following facts : —

Of 85 mothers who had syphilis, and in non-hospital
patients, 27 of their children survived, while 58 died from
premature birth, still-birth, or died shortly after birth —
that is, two out of every three children.

Of 165 mothers who had syphilis, and in-hospital patients,
22 children survived, while 145 died from premature birth,
still-birth, or died shortly after their birth.

Of 28 mothers who had syphilis one child survived and
27 died. Le Pileur's statistics show that of 414 syphilitic
wives — and who were pregnant when suffering from
syphilis — who had among them 260 children, no less than
141 of these died within one month after birth. Of the
414 pregnancies 295 infants died, or about three deaths in
every four births. When both parents are infected with
syphilis the infant mortality is 68 per cent, in hospital
practice, and 60 per cent, in private practice. Fournier
terms the first year of the infant's life " I'ann^e terrible,"
when speaking of the devastating influence of syphilis.

112 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

This is a fearful death-rate, much higher than that
following smallpox, scarlet fever, or typhoid, and shows
that the human animal is somewhat of a glut in the
market. If other diseases of infancy, and especially
gonorrhoeal ophthalmia in infants — a disease which sends
many to institutions for the blind, makes many more
become a charge to the Poor Law, and prevents others
from earning a livelihood — were considered faithfully, the
widespreading results of venereal disease would be more
carefully studied. In New York in one year, of 1,941
mothers with gonorrhoea, 265 of their babies suffered
from gonorrhoeal ophthalmia. In Switzerland one in
every five cases of blindness is due to gonorrhoea. In
New York, of the 1,941 cases of maternal gonorrhoea, 218
female children suffered from vulvo-vaginitis. Spaeth
found that in 90 per cent, of specific vulvo-vaginitis in
children, their mothers suffered from uterine discharge or
leucorrhoea. Brach found the germ characteristic ot
gonorrhoea — the gonococcus — in twenty cases of vulvo-
vaginitis out of a total of 21 girls. Cassel, in 30 girls
aged from seven months to 11 years, found gonorrhoea in
24 ; Fischer, in 50 out of 59 cases ; and Hall^ in 25 out
of 27 girls. In Posen, 236 children contracted gonorrhoea
by bathing in a public bath, the water of which had been
contaminated with gonorrhoea. In 45 cases, girls with
vulvo-vaginitis suffered from purulent ophthalmia. In
1879 Neisser made the discovery of the micrococcus which
is the cause of gonorrhoea, this discovery now allowing
the diagnosis of the disease to be made with a marked
degree of certainty.

As regards the dire effects of venereal diseases upon
-women, gonorrhoea seems to have an elective tendency to
attack and to cause inflammation of the uterus, fallopian
tubes, and ovaries. To understand the amount of disease
which attacks the female organs of generation, it is to be
noted that about 75 per cent, of the male adult population
have, or do suffer from gonorrhoea; syphilis attacking
from 5 to 18 per cent. Noeggerath states that in New
York City of every 1000 married men 800 have, or have
had gonorrhoea. "The Committee of Seven," a com-
mittee appointed in New York to inquire into the pre-

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. II3

valence and effects of venereal diseases, stated that
nearly 30 per cent, of all venereal infections in women
treated in private practice in New York City were com-
municated by their husbands. Fournigr states that in
France 5 per cent, of all women suffering from syphilis
have been infected during marriage. Morrow states that
in New York 70 per cent, of all the women who came to
the New York hospital for treatment were respectable
married women who had been infected by their husbands.

Gonorrhoea as a cause of abortion is authenticated. Of
53 women who became pregnant when suffering from
gonorrhoea 19 aborted (Noeggerath). Of loi pregnancies
in gonorrhoeic women 71 went to full time, 23 aborted,
and seven were premature (Fruhinsholz). Of 201 preg-
nancies complicated with gonorrhoea, 141 went to full
time, 36 were premature, and four aborted. Gonorrhceal
salpingitis is also a cause of extra-uterine pregnancy, and
therefore often causing the death or ill-health of women.

As regards the frequency of inflammatory trouble of. the
uterus and fallopian tubes caused by gonorrhoea, Humiston
says that of every 100 cases, 90 per cent, are due to gonor-
rhoea. Pice fixes the average at 95 per cent. ; Pozzi at 75
per cent. ; the average being 47 per cent. I have else-
where stated that in one year, in England and Wales, not
less than 2000 women had their entire procreative organs
removed owing to disease.

As to sterility in women caused by gonorrhoea, this can
be readily understood when it is recalled that gonorrhceal
inflammation of the tubes prevents the ova from passing
from the ovaries to the uterus. Noeggerath, whose state-
ments were at one time derided but are now accepted,
says that of every 100 sterile women, fifty of these had
their sterility due to gonorrhoea. Neisser, who contends
that gonorrhoea is a more potent factor in depopulating a
country than is syphilis, states that gonorrhceal infection is
responsible for 45 per cent, of sterility in women. Ascher
found that in 227 sterile wives, 121 had their sterility due
to gonorrhoea. Kehren averages it at 45 per cent. ; Kam-
merer, 85 per cent. ; Grunderwald, 53 per cent. ; and
Chrolack, 40 per cent.

It would therefore appear that the best way for a hus-

114 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

band to make his wife sterile, is to contract gonorrhcea
and to hand it on to her. In all the discussions bearing-
upon the falling birth-rate, I have seen no notice given to
venereal diseases and operations upon the female uterine
organs as causes of this fall. I contend that they are very
serious causes.

As regards the effect of venereal diseases upon men, the
complications are numerous — stricture, inflammation of
the bladder, prostate, and testes, bubo, gonorrhoeal rheu-
matism, etc. If the testes are inflamed and the vasa
deferentia affected, it follows that the fertilizing fluid
cannot pass outwards and that male sterility will follow.
In ninety cases of sterile marriages due to gonorrhoeal
inflammation of the testes, there were twenty-nine cases
of azoosphermia and twenty-nine of oligosphermia. Others
(Brasch) consider that go per cent, of all cases of azoo-
sphermia may be traced to gonorrhoeal orchitis. (It may
be here stated, that by means of the microscope the fer-
tility or sterility of the fertilizing fluid can be absolutely
decided.) Kehrer found in 96 sterile marriages that in
29 cases the husband was sterile, and in 29 cases the
fertilizing agent was weak. Gross estimated that the
proportion of sterile marriages due to gonorrhoea in the
man was 17 per cent, of the total. Englemann places it
at 20 per cent., and Brothers at 25 per cent.

As to the bearing of alcohol upon the contracting of
venereal disease, Horel states that in 76.4 per cent, of
caSes infected, this percentage were drunk when infected ;
and Langstein, that in 169 cases of males, 18 were drunk,
55 intoxicated, and 48.3 per cent, were under the influence
of alcohol.

How can venereal disease be stamped out? — No practical
person holds that the registration of prostitutes on the
Continent, or in England when, the C. D. Acts were in
force, has been, or can be, of any service.

I would, however, suggest that notification of venereal
diseases to the health authority, or to some central body
in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, be adopted, and that
hospitals, supported by the municipalities, be established
at which all poor venereals can obtain free treatment. I
would also suggest that some statements be drawn up

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. II5

by the Local Government Board showing the far-reach-
ingf effects of venereal diseases, and presented free to all
men in business houses, etc. We should also follow the
legislation adopted by the State of Michigan, and make it
illegal for any one to marry who is suffering from active
venereal disease. Further, any one who infects another
with venereal disease should be punished. Again, I
would strongly suggest that no prostitute be permitted
to appear upon the streets. It is more than a pity to see
so many boys and young fellows accosted and carried
off by prostitutes when coming home from school or
business.

Bearing upon the above suggestions, I would point out
that we now have compulsory notification of infectious
diseases. Why not have notification of contagious dis-
eases — especially as contagious diseases cause more wide-
spread evils? Again, by the Lepers Act, India, 1898,
cases of leprosy are notified to the authority, while the
lepers are isolated. If leprosy, why not syphilis and
gonorrhoea ? Further, the Contagious Diseases (Animals)
Act, 1878, S. 31, enacts that any person knowing
of the existence of any animal suffering frorti sheep-
pox, foot-and-mouth disease, pleuro-pneumonia or cattle
plague, must forthwith notify the police of the fact — -a fine
of ;^20 being provided against failure to notify. If for
sheep-pox in animals, why not for venereal diseases in
human beings ? Section 31 of the Act provides as fol-
lows: — " Every person having in his possession, or under
his charge, an animal affected with disease shall, as far
as practicable, keep that animal separate from animals
not so affected." As regards penalties for punishment
of those who infect others with venereal diseases, we can
take as a precedent our Public Health Act, 1875, where,
by S. 126, it is provided that if any person suffering from
an infectious disease wilfully exposes himself or herself,
he or she may be fined ;^5. I would suggest that the fine
for infecting be ;£^20, or imprisonment in a venereal hos-
pital until cured.

The French Code enacts as follows: — "The physician
who knowingly leaves a nurse in ignorance of the dangers
to which she exposes herself in nursing an infant suffering

9

Il6 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

from congenital syphilis may be declared responsible for
the prejudice caused by his reticence."

The notification of venereal diseases has also been
provided for in Denmark, Finland, Russia, and the
Cantons of Tessin and SchafFhausen. I have collected
some of the Acts of these countries and obtained
information from the various British Embassies and
Consulates.

The law of the Canton of Schaffhausen is —

"Clause 185. — Prostitution in cases where venereal
diseases exist. Any person who is knowingly suffering
from venereal disease and who has sexual connection,
shall be sentenced to imprisonment in the first degree for
a period not exceeding three months."

As regards the Canton of Tessin, the law is —

" Prostitutes are punishable with arrest of from three to
five days. If prostitutes who are afflicted with venereal
disease continue to act as such when suffering from
venereal disease, they are punishable with seven days'
imprisonment and a fine."

As regards Denmark, the following are Paragraphs i
and 2 of the Law for the Prevention of Venereal Diseases,
April loth, 1874: —

"Par. I. — Persons suffering from a venereal disease
are entitled to demand treatment at the public cost,
without consideration as to their ability to pay, and are
also compelled to submit to treatment unless they are able
to certify that they are privately undergoing proper medical
treatment.

" If the circumstances of the infected persons be such
as would not safely prevent the spread of the disease
without their removal, or if they do not conform to the
regulations for the prevention of infection, they shall be
removed to the hospital. Matters relating to this shall
in case of need be decided by the Sheriff (in Copenhagen
by the Chief of the Police), and the compliance with the
decision can be enforced by fines dictated by the aforesaid
authorities.

"Those who are in receipt of parish relief and found to
be suffering from a venereal disease, shall be placed in a
hospital for treatment. If after a cure has been effected

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. II 7

there is special reason to fear a recurrence of the disease
in an infectious form, the medical practitioner who has
had the suiferer in hand may order the patient to appear
before him at stipulated times, or to produce an authorized
physician's certificate of non-recurrence of the disease.
Compliance with the order to appear before the physician
can be enforced by fines dictated by the aforesaid
authorities.

"Par. 2. — A child being infected by a venereal disease
shall not be suckled by any other woman than its own
mother. Nor shall any wet-nurse who knows or suspects
that she suffers from venereal disease, suckle another
woman's child. Offenders against this shall suffer the
punishment put down for the offence stated in Section 181
of the Penal Code; as also shall the guilty party, if the
disease spread, not only be compelled to refund the cost
of the cure of the infected party, but also pay damages
for the suffering and losses caused by the disease.

' ' Compensation shall also be paid by the party who places
a child out for nursing, knowing or suspecting that the
child suffers from a venereal disease, or who places out for
suckling a child suspected as suffering from the disease,
without notifying the foster-parents, or the wet-nurse,
before handing it over, that it has or is suspected of having
the disease. This enactment also applies to the public
authorities who place children out for nursing or suckling.

" A child may be suspected of the aforesaid disease even
if there are no visible signs, when the mother is infected,
or has previously suffered from venereal disease in any of
its constitutional forms, and three months have not elapsed
since the birth of the child."

The paragraph of the Penal Code above referred to is as
follows: — " 181 of the Penal Code of Denmark, February
loth, 1866. Punishment by imprisonment, or under
serious circumstances. Industrial Home confinement shall
be inflicted on any person who has sexual intercourse,
knowing or suspecting that he or she is infected with a
venereal disease."

Norway. — Par. 155 and 358 of the Civil Penal Code
of Norway, 22nd May 1902, put into operation January
1904 :—

Il8 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

" Par. 155. — Any person who knowingly, or suspecting
that he suffers from an infectious venereal disease, infects
or exposes to infection any person through sexual
connection, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term
not exceeding three years.

"The same punishment shall be inflicted on any person
who, as an accessory to any act referred to above, knows
or suspects that the party committing the offence suffers
from an infectious venereal disease, infects or exposes any
other person to infection.

"If the person infected or exposed to infection be the
husband or wife of the guilty party, a public prosecution
may be instituted only at the request of the injured person.

" Par. 358. — A fine, or imprisonment for a period not
exceeding six months, shall be inflicted on any person, or
any accessory who, neglecting to draw attention to the
danger of infection —

" (i) Places a child whom he knows or suspects to be
suffering from infectious syphilitic disease in custody of
a person, or encourages a person to nurse such a child.

" (2) With knowledge or suspicion that he or she suffers
fro^ an infectious syphilitic disease, enters into domestic
service, or remains in such service, or receives a strange
child to nurse.

"The same punishment shall be inflicted on any person,
or accessory, who engages, or keeps to nurse a child, any
person whom he knows or suspects to be suffering from
infectious syphilitic disease."

Norway has had a Notification of Infectious Diseases Act
since May i6th, i860, that of England dating from 1898
only. In Norway, syphilis and gonorrhoea are notifiable
diseases. The following is the law relating thereto : —

" Par. 14. — When a householder observes that a disease
is spreading within his household circle, and that the
disease appears to be of an evil nature, he shall notify the
same to the Chairman of the Health Committee, or to any
of its members, or to any officer attached to the Police or
Poor Law authorities, by whom notification shall be given
to the Chairman of the Health Committee or (if too much
time would be lost thereby) to the nearest medical practi-
tioner. The doctor who receives the notification shall

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. II9

investigate the case as soon as possible, give the necessary
preliminary instructions, and if he is not the Chairman of
the Health Committee at the place, he shall give a report
about the case to the Chairman. If the medical officer of
the district is not the Chairman of the Committee
concerned, he shall receive a report of the illness from the
Chairman about it what course has been adopted."

The following statistics show the number of cases of
syphilis, gonorrhoea, and venereal sores in Norway during
1902 : —

Cases treated in hospitals: syphilis — primary 29, secon-
dary 426, hereditary 25, not stated 2 ; total syphilis, 482;
gonorrhoea, 315 ; total in hospitals, 797. Cases treated
outside hospitals: syphilis — primary 133, secondary 1059;
hereditary 70, venereal sores 552; gonorrhoea, 4,836;
total outside hospitals, 6,650. Grand total in and out-
side hospitals, 7,447.

A reference to Chapter XIX. shows that not a few
countries take drastic action regarding venereal diseases.
Thus, the Argentine Republic and Austria forbid the
marriage of persons suffering from contagious diseases.
Michigan enacts that any person who marries when suffer-
ing from venereal disease is guilty of felony, and can be
fined 500 dollars or imprisoned for five years. In England,
unfortunately, the marriage of venereals can take place
and the usual procedure of " locking the stable door after
the steed has been stolen" followed — i.e., the wife can
contract the disease, and probably the child also, and then
sue for divorce. No doubt men about to marry think that
they are quite cured of all venereal taint; but if they would
recollect that if it is the " almost cured" person, or the
person " with only a gleet," who causes the most damage
to innocent persons, he or she would be more careful to be
thoroughly examined before marriage. Morrow records a
case of gonorrhoea which remained infective for six years.
Jullien says that generally six months is required to suc-
cessfully cure gonorrhoea, while three per cent, are
absolutely incurable. A chronic gonorrhoea in a female
becomes very infective and more virulent after the
menstrual period, during pregnancy, and immediately
after confinement.

120 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

There is nothing, as a rule, in medical etiquette which
would prevent a physician from notifying by law venereal
diseases. The "Oath of Hippocrates" contains the fol-
lowing promise to be made by the medical graduates: —
"Whatever in connection with my professional practice,
or not in connection with it, I see or hear in the life of
men which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not
divulge." By the Michigan Marriage Act it is enacted —
' ' And provided further that in all cases arising under this
Act any physician who has attended or prescribed for any
husband or wife for either of the diseases mentioned, shall
be compelled to testify to the facts found by him from such
attendance." This refers to evidence before Courts of
Law. The Civil Court of Procedure of New York enacts
— "A person duly qualified to practise physic or surgery
shall not be allowed to disclose any information acquired
in attending a patient in a professional capacity, and which
was necessary to enable him to act in that capacity."
Article 378 of the French Penal Code enacts as follows: —
"Physicians, surgeons, and other officers of health, also
pharmacists, midwives, and all other persons, the deposi-
taries by their state or profession of secrets which have
been confided to them, who — outside of cases where the
law obliges them to be disclosed — shall reveal those secrets,
shall be punished with an imprisonment of from one to six
months and a fine of from one to 500 francs."

In 1896 the Royal College of Physicians, Lond., obtained
the opinion of Sir Edward Clarke and Mr. Horace Avory
with regard to reporting cases of criminal abortion to the
police. It is as follows : — " We are of opinion that it is the
duty of a medical practitioner who knows or believes that
he is in attendance in a case where criminal abortion has
been practised to attend his patient to the best of his skill,
and that he does not thereby render himself liable as an
accessory after the fact, so long as he does nothing to
assist the patient in escaping from or defeating justice.
(See I Hale, 332.) We do not think that the medical prac-
titioner is liable to indictment for misprision of felony (an
offence which is nearly obsolete) merely because he does
not give information in a case where he suspects that
criminal abortion has been practised. In the case

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 121

suggested, where the name of the person is given who
is going to commit such an offence, we think it the duty
of the medical practitioner at once to warn such person
that such a statement has been made."

In the trial Kitson v. Playfair, Mr. Justice Hawkins
said — " It was also said by the medical witnesses that if
in the course of professional practice they came across a
case which indicated either that a crime had been com-
mitted, or was about to be committed, that under these
circumstances they were bound to divulge it. To whom ?
To the Public Prosecutor? If a poor wretched woman
committed an offence for the purpose of getting rid of that
with which she was pregnant and saving her character,
her reputation, and it might be her very means of liveli-
hood, and if a doctor was called in to assist her — not in
procuring abortion, for that in itself was a crime — but
called in for the purpose of attending her and giving
medical advice how she might be cured, so as to go forth
about her business, he (the learned judge) doubted very
much whether he would be justified in going forth and
saying to the Public Prosecutor, ' I have been attending a
poor young woman who has been trying to procure abor-
tion with the assistance of her sister. She is now pretty
well, and is getting better, and in the course of a few days
she will be out again ; but I think I ought to put you on
to the woman.' To his (the learned judge's) mind, a thing
like that would be monstrous cruelty. He did not know
what the jury's views would be: he spoke only of his own.
Therefore, when it was said that there was a general rule
existing in the medical profession that whensoever they
saw in the course of their medical attendance that a
crime had been committed, or was about to be com-
mitted, they were in all cases to go off to the Public
Prosecutor, he (the learned judge) was bound to say
that it was not a rule which met his approbation, and
he hoped it would not meet with the approbation of any
one else."

The following important letter was issued by the London
and Counties Medical Society, after a trial in which a
medical practitioner had to pay ;^200 damages for divulg-
ins: certain information: — "A doctor was called in to a

122 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

patient's house, and he was asked by his employer to see
and prescribe for her maid-servant, and to report to the
employer upon the girl's state of health. In consequence
of the doctor's report, the servant was dismissed. She
commenced an action for slander against the doctor, who,
finally, upon the advice of the council of the society,
settled the matter by paying her a solatium, the costs of
the case being borne by the society. The solicitors to the
council advised that a medical practitioner paid by his
employer to attend upon the Servant of the employer (the
servant" not objecting to being attended by the doctor)
might divulge to his employer the result of his attendance,
that being a privileged communication ; but if the report is
made in the presence of, or to, any other person than the
employer, as happened in the above instance, the report is
not privileged, and the matter may become actionable..
The council expressed a distinct opinion that a doctor
consulted by an employer in reference to the health of a
servant should obtain the written consent of the servant,
before describing or divulging the result of his examina-
tion to the employer, in such cases where the servant might
be likely to object to his doing so."

Suggestions. — i. That any person who advises any male
or female to have extra-marital sexual intercourse be
punished.

2. That if any person be advised by any other person to
have extra-marital sexual intercourse, and if the person
thereby advised contracts any venereal disease, the adviser
shall be made to pay damages not exceeding ;^50o.

3. That compulsory notification of all infectious venereal
diseases be adopted, and that the medical practitioner send
forthwith the notification, marked "confidential," to the
Local Government Board in each of the three divisions of
the United Kingdom, and that a fee of two shillings and
sixpence be paid by the Board for each notification.

4. That hospitals be established at the cost of the local
authority.

5. That all venereal patients who cannot pay for proper
treatment and medicines be treated without any charge at
such hospitals.

6. That it be illegal for any person suffering from in-

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 123

fectious venereal disease to become engaged to marry, or
to marry.

7. That if any person suffering from infectious venereal
disease infect any other person, such former person shall be
fined or imprisoned.

8. That statistics be drawn up by the Local Govern-
ment Boards showing the evil results of illicit sexual
intercourse and of venereal diseases, and that such state-
ments be given by the Boards for distribution by employers
of labour.

9. That it be illegal for any man or woman to have
extra-marital intercourse with any male or female under
the age of thirty years.

10. That it be illegal for any medical practitioner to
employ as a wet-nurse any woman who is free from
venereal disease to suckle, or to nurse, a syphilitic infant
without first informing such nurse of the dangers of
suckling such infant.

11. No person shall be compelled to attend for treat-
ment at a venereal hospital if such person can show that
he or she is being privately treated by a medical prac-
titioner. The medical practitioner shall have power to
compel such patient to remain under his care until cured,
provided that such patient shall have the right to be
excused from this treatment, if he can obtain a written
statement from two other eminent practitioners that he is
completely cured and is unable to infect any person. If he
fails to attend, he shall be sent to the free hospital.

12. No medical practitioner shall suffer any penalty for
notifying the occurrence of any infectious venereal disease
to the authority, provided that any practitioner guilty of
breach of confidence in letting it be known that any person
is under his treatment for any infectious venereal disease,
shall be liable to a fine of ^^loo, with or without imprison-
ment for one year. No action shall be brought against any
practitioner who in a court of law gives evidence regarding
the occurrence of infectious venereal disease in the party
or parties before the court.

13. That the registration of prostitutes has not been
productive of the good results expected by such regis-
tration.

CHAPTER Xyill.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION AND DEGENERACY.

"The maximum of Life can only be reached by the maximum of
Virtue." — RnsKiN.

Sexual Excess. — When speaking of the causes of mental
degeneracy, one is likely to be scoffed at and to be pro-
nounced "old-fashioned" if he call attention to departures
from the moral la\y and the clean life. The more
fashionable jargon of to-day talks of "the germ plasm,"
"the subdivision of the nucleus," "the chromostomes,"
"the polarity of the organic units," "the effects of
amphimixis on ontogency," and so on, and so on ! It
requires the Polonius in Hamlet to murmur after such high-
sounding but hollow expressions — "That's good: mob-
led queen is good" ; or his reply — " By the mass, and 'tis like
a camel indeed "; and more appropriately still — " Very like
a whale!" I think Kipling uses the expression "Bally
rot."

It is strange that the study of degeneracy has not
commenced at "the beginnings" — the real "cradle of the
race"; for we find little in either medical or non-medical
works which refers to sexual hygiene. Yet if we refer to
the earliest sociologists we find that they considered the
subject of primary importance. The Levitican laws
emphasize its value by laying it down that each woman
during her sexual life is "unclean" for fourteen out ot
every twenty-eight days : thus showing that she must have
sexual rest for at least one-half of her active life, or six
months out of every year. This decree is amplified in the
Mishna and Talmud. The modern man sneers at this,
but only because he prefers to treat woman from a sexual-
pleasure, or sexual-water-closet point of view, instead of
from the higher, the procreative. The Jewish sociologists
contended that husband and wife did not live for themselves,
but that theirs was the duty to the nation in the matter of
begetting healthy children for the nation or the state.

124

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 125

This old sociologist also laid it down (Leviticus xii. 2)
that a woman was to be held "unclean" for seven days
and thirty-three days after her confinement of a male
child, and fourteen days and sixty-six days after her
confinement of a female child. I am told that this law
is strictly adhered to by the Jewish people in relation to
their wives, and that so long as they are "unclean" there
is no sexual intercourse.

Yet, although every physician knows that it is most
detrimental to the woman if she have intercourse during
her period, or if she then become pregnant, nothing is
said. And although the physician not infrequently finds
that the husband resumes sexual relations much too soon
after his wife's confinements, thereby causing her to have
fever, to have her milk made unwholesome for the child,
and to have her lochia disturbed, nothing is said. There
is "the conspiracy of silence." Every physician with
practical knowledge recognizes that this too-soon return to
sexual intercourse greatly upsets the mother's milk, and to
such an extent as to disorganize the child's digestive
organs, or to upset its nervous system to such an extent
as to cause the infant to have convulsions, these causing
mental defect. Some mothers, knowing of these ill-effects,
draw off the milk after intercourse, or after fright or shock,
and throw it away. A too-early return to sexual inter-
course leads to the mother again becoming pregnant a few
weeks or months after her labour — before she has recovered
her strength to such an extent as to nourish another
healthy child. Thus, sometimes among the wage-earning
classes one comes across those lamentable cases — all
spelling idiocy, or feeble-minded children — where the poor
woman has to nourish three persons, and too often on
non-nourishing food — the child at her breasts, the child in
her womb, and her own body. It is such cases as these
that makes one feel that more real progress would be made
if we used the words "environment" or "heredity" as
seldom as possible.

Another sociologist, Zoroaster (the Christ of the Par-
sees), some 3,500 years ago laid it down that there were
five sins which a man should not commit :

"It is the fourth of these sins that a man commits

126 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

when a man has intercourse with a woman who has an
issue of blood, either out of her ordinary course or at the
usual period, and that it is a sin that makes him a
Pesho-tanu.

" It is the fifth of these sins that a man commits when
a man has intercourse with a woman quick with child,
whether the milk has already come to her breasts or has
not yet come. If mischief follows therefrom and she die,
this is a sin that makes the man a Pesho-tanu.

"Whosoever shall lie in sexual intercourse with a
woman who has an issue o'f blood, either out of the
ordinary course or at the usual period, does no better
deed than if he should burn the corpse of his own son,
born of his own body and dead of Naega, and drop its fat
into the fire."

Zoroaster preached that every crime made the offender
liable to suffer two punishments — one in this world and one
in the next. The term "Pesho-tanu" means a criminal,
and one who pays with his own body. The punishment,
"Peshotanu," is a number of strokes, with a whip, two
hundred in number.

Sociolc^ists cannot be too grateful to Max Miiller for
his translation of " The Sacred Books of the East" series.
The above laws are taken from the Vendidad, Fargard XV.

As regards Mohammed, the Koran lays it down as
follows: — "They will ask thee also concerning the
courses of women. Answer, They are a pollution : there-
fore separate yourself from women in fheir courses and go
not near them until they be cleansed." A traveller in the
East tells me that such law is very strongly enforced, and
that the woman who wishes to let her husband know that
she is unclean places her shoes outside her room against
the wall with the toe part looking upwards, while when
she is not unclean the toes of the shoes rest on the
ground. Perhaps the idea in some parts of England
that a child with a "port-wine stain" upon it has been
begotten during the period points the moral of the
Jewish, Parsee, and Mohammedan laws. The Koran
also forbids sexual intercourse during the pilgrimage to
Mecca, and during the month of fasting (Ramadan).

These ancient laws have appeared in the English law

SOME CAUSES OK NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 12/

and canons. The canon law makes it a sin to have
sexual intercourse during fasts, during Lent, after the
Sacrament, or in consecrated places. Wheatly [On
Common Prayer, Sec. i) writes against sexual inter-
course during Lent. In pre-Reformation times it was laid
down that the newly-married should abstain from inter-
course for two or three days. I have heard it stated that
in early Jewish times the newly-married couple were
separated for nine days after being together for one day
after the marriage. L have elsewhere referred to the law
in France, where those who married at the ages of
fourteen and twelve were separated until they had arrived
at maturity. Lately, in America, divorces have been
granted, under the term "cruelty," when the husband
has injured his wife's health by undue sexual intercourse.

I think the following statistics, taken along with those
mentioned on page 17, show that a woman's system is
quite different from that of a man's, and that as she suffers
so much she should be given all the more care. These
show that the yearly average number of women admitted
into the asylums of England and Wales amounted to no
less than 1,756, and that their insanity was due to the
following causes : —

Pregnancy, 118; parturition, 636; suckling, 31; change
of life, 642 ; puberty, 148 ; uterine and ovarian diseases,
46. If we add to these the number who are ill physically
from these causes and the number who die, we can readily
see their heavy mental and physical sick rate and mor-
tality.

There is no doubt, judging from the above and to-day's
knowledge, that sexual intercourse with the pregnant
woman injures her health and that of the infant in the
womb, and may cause idiocy. It is against Nature.
What would be thought of the farmer who would begin
again to sow seed on a field in which the grain has
germinated and is growing ; or to re-cover a pregnant
mare ? Why not apply this to woman? The sole purpose
of sexual intercourse is the begetting of offspring, while
the elevating, or rather degrading, of the sexual act to
one of mere pleasure is of very secondary considera-
tion ; a modern perpetuation of the ancient worship of

128 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

Phallus and Priapus, and mostly met with in degenerates
in its greatest extent. It is now known that the sexual
act in man is not even necessary, as the fertilizing agent
will act if conveyed by mechanical means into the vagina.
Among plants there is no sexual intercourse between male
and female flowers, the wind, movements, or insects being
the conveyers of the seed. Yet plants and trees are
healthy and bring forth healthy successors. Among many
fish there is no sexual union, the female laying her eggs
in the spawning bed, while the male deposits his seed
upon the eggs afterwards.

The alleged remark of St. Paul that "It is better to
marry than burn " has been productive of vast evil, for it
has introduced the question of using the woman's body
for medicinal or therapeutic purposes, a form of advice
employed by former doctors, who recommended their
young patients suffering from gleet, spermatorrhoea, and
night emissions to indulge in sexual union — and with
degrading results ; it being held in some parts of England
that if a man suffering from venereal disease has inter-
course with a pure woman he will get rid of his disease by
giving it to her. It is most unfortunate, also, that in the
Prayer Book of the Church of England one of the reasons
for marriage is for the benefit of such persons "as have
not the gift of continency." Here Phallus is worshipped
in churches, and the clergy publicly insult every honest
woman in a sacred edifice.

The yearly average number of persons admitted into
the asylums of England and Ireland, where "sexual
excess" was the cause of insanity, amounts to about
141.

It may help the honest inquirer to recollect that no
pregnant animal will submit to sexual intercourse ; in
fact, the pregnant animal will adopt every effort to save
herself. Even the hatching hen will refuse the male bird.
It is a very interesting fact also — but very humiliating to
man — that few male animals will persist in an attempt to
have intercourse when it sees that the female is pregnant.
Woman, although she has the fastidii virum (the disgust
for sexual man) when pregnant, has been taught by man
to consider whether it is better for her to submit than for

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 1 29

the " brute " to go elsewhere. During suckling, also, the
female will not submit to intercourse. Here, again,
woman is the only animal called upon to work during
pregnancy, or suckling. One would like to know what
householder would accept the milk from cows if worked.
He would denounce it as infamous, while, like an all-round
hypocrite, he would allow the woman to work in the mill
or factory until the pains of labour allowed her no longer
to work ; and would practically encourage her to resume
work in the factory within thirty days after the birth of
her child. It is these unctuous hypocrites who say
' ' anything is good enough for pregnant women and
mothers " — the backbone of the State — and excrete pious '
ejaculations regarding " National deterioration."

It is a well-known fact among stock-breeders that
sexual intercourse with pregnant animals causes abortion.
Flandrin states that pregnant cows, mares, and sheep
miscarry in about twenty-four to thirty-six hours after
sexual union. Whitehead was of the same opinion.
Depaul considered that two-thirds of the spontaneous
causes of abortion in women are due to sexual inter-
course, while Miguel thinks that nine out of every ten
abortions are due to sexual intercourse (see author's
Causes and Treatment of Abortion). It is somewhat
worthy of note that a great many confinements come on
in the early hours of the morning — due, I fear, to inter-
course rupturing the membranes, and thus, sometimes,
causing the premature birth of the child and with
consequent danger to its health.

In discussing the causes of mental weakness, it is
important to note that it is the iirst-bom child which
frequently suffers. I have elsewhere quoted the statistics
of the Irish Census Return upon this point. Down places
the percentage of first-born defectives at 24 per cent.,
Shuttleworth at 20.67 P^^ cent., and Grabham at 23 per
cent. I would suggest that the chief reasons for this
suffering of the first-born are excitement in the woman —
the excitement of the engagement, of the preparation for
the ceremony of marriage, the honeymoon, sexual shock,
sexual gluttony, and the late hours kept after returning
home. Taking all these facts into consideration, the

I30 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

wonder is that there are not more first-born children
made idiots or imbeciles. The man or woman who
begets or conceives during such excitements must not
complain if they have to pay for the up-keep of a child in
a home for incurables.

The above conclusion is borne out by the statement
of Beach, Shuttleworth, and Barr, who give a careful
analysis of 5,430 children when inquiring into the causes
of idiocy and feeble-mindedness in children. These patient
inquirers divided the causes into three classes — first,
causes acting during pregnancy ; second, causes acting
during birth ; and third, causes acting after birth. Their
results prove that the period in which the child lives in
the womb is its most momentous and susceptible time of
life. Thus, the Elwyn Table (Barr's) shows that causes
acting during pregnancy accounted for 64.85 per cent, of
feeble-minded children, 32.23 to causes during birth, and
only 2.92 due to causes after birth. We all know how
terribly impressionable a pregnant woman is to all
influences, although, as no nervous connection has yet
been found connecting the woman with her child in the
womb, we cannot explain this influence.

Moreover, experiments upon animals show that the
effects of feeding the mother during pregnancy are very
marked. Paton experimented upon some pregnant guinea-
pigs, some being fed upon a low diet and others upon
generous food. The experiments showed that the size of
the offspring depends very greatly upon the diet and the
nutrition of the mother during pregnancy. It has also-
been found that it is more important to give a generous
diet during the first halt of pregnancy than during the
latter half. This is but another proof of the fact that t}ie
foundations are the most important part of any system.

The above facts show that sociologists have not finished
their work by declaring that a man " must not marry his
grandmother," or in drawing up a table of "consan-
guinities and affinities," but that definite rules relating to
sexual life should be promulgated.

Suggestions. — I would suggest the following: —

That sexual intercourse is not necessary for good health
of man or woman.

SOME CAUSES OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION. 131

That sexual intercourse has for its sole purpose the
begetting of healthy offspring.

That no sexual intercourse should take place during
the menstrual period and for seven days afterwards.

That no sexual intercourse should take place during
pregnancy or during suckling.

CHAPTER XIX.

HOW SOME COUNTRIES FORBID THE MARRIAGE OF DETERIOR
ANTS AND DEGENERATES.

As this is a most important consideration, I shall present
the laws relating to the above subject as fully as possible.
Here I would take the opportunity of returning my best
thanks to the Secretaries of the different American States
who have so kindly sent me copies of many of the follow-
ing Acts : —

Servia. — In Servia idiots, maniacs, complete cripples,
deaf and dumb, physically or mentally defective, those too
poor to maintain a family, those very ill or who suffer
from infectious or hereditary complaints, and those who
suffer from venereal diseases (unless a medical certificate
is presented showing that the disease is cured), are not
permitted to marry.

Argentine Republic. — The Marriage Act of December
I St, 1889, enacts that insane persons shall not marry; nor
a man who has caused the death of the former husband or
wife of the other. No deaf and dumb male or female who
cannot write, or who is under twenty-two years of age,
can be joined in marriage without the consent of the
father, mother, guardian, or judicial court. No person
suffering from contagious disease can be joined in mar-
riage to a minor without the consent of father, mother,
guardian, or judge ; or if he be immoral, or of bad
character, or if he has been imprisoned for more than a
year, or if he has no means to support the wife, or if he
has not the ability to make the means of support. The
Argentine Act defines a lunatic as — " Insane persons are
those in a habitual state of mania, lunacy, or imbecility,
though they may have lucid intervals and the mania be
only partial."

Austria. — Articles 52 and 53 of the Civil Code enacts
that the parents, etc., may refuse consent to the proposed
marriage for — want of adequate means, bad moral char-

132

MARRIAGE OF DEGENERATES FORBIDDEN. 1 33

acter, contagious diseases and infirmities. Also madness,
idiocy, and mental defect are a bar to marriage. Dis-
obedience is punished by nullity of marriage.

Italy. — A person of unsound mind cannot be married,
and a marriage must be postponed until absolute proof of
recovery has been given.

England, Scotland, and Ireland. — In these countries, as
elsewhere stated, the strictly lawyer view is taken and
little or no attention is given to marriage from the physical
or mental health' standpoints. The lawyers practically
say — "Marry if you wish, and if you find each other
mentally or physically unsound, either put up with it or
try to have the marriage made void or annulled."

United States, America. — It is to these States we must
look for guidance if we wish to follow the honest attempts
which have been made to lessen the chances of children
being degenerates. Too much praise cannot be given to
those who have tackled a subject which the public in
England have persistently refused to deal with — rather
preferring, in fact, to let things go as they please; to build
more asylums, and to pay increased rates.

Some of the local States have made efforts to frame
their marriage laws upon common-sense and physiology.
In nearly all of the local States their law enacts that a
marriage solemnized outside a. State between parties domi-
ciled in the State is valid, although performed outside the
State of domicile. These Acts are important in so far as
they go, but they are of educational value only. They are
useless in controlling degenerates, as it is illegal to punish
non-responsible persons for their actions. For so far, I
have been unable to find out any prosecutions which have
taken place under these Acts.

Michigan. — In so far as I can find, this State has been
the first to deal with the subject. Its Act is dated 1867.

Section 6 is as follows: — "No insane person, idiot, or
person who has been afflicted with syphilis or gonorrhoea,
and has not been cured of the same, shall be capable of
contracting marriage. . . . Any person who has been
afflicted with syphilis or gonorrhoea and has not been
cured of the same, who shall marry, shall be deemed
guilty of felony; and upon conviction thereof in any court

134 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

of competent jurisdiction, shall be punished by a fine of not
less than four hundred dollars or more than one thousand
dollars, or by imprisonment in the State's prison at Jack-
son not more than four years ; or by both such fine and
imprisonment in the discretion of the Court. . . . And
provided further, that in all c^ses arising under this Act
any physician who has attended or prescribed for any
husband or wife for either of the diseases above mentioned
shall be compelled to testify to the facts found by him for
such attendance."

This Act of 1905, which was introduced on March 8th,
1905, goes much further than the above. It enacts as
follows : —

"Section 6. — No insane person, idiot, or person who
has been afflicted with syphilis or gonorrhoea, and has not
been cured of the same, shall be capable of contracting
marriage. Any person who has been afflicted with syphilis
or gonorrhoea, and has not been cured of the same, who
shall marry, shall be deemed guilty of a felony; and upon
conviction thereof in any Court of competent jurisdiction
shall be punished by a fine of not less than 500 dollars, nor
more than 1000 dollars; or by imprisonment in the State
prison at Jackson not more than four years; or by both
such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the Court.
. . . No person who has been confined in any public
institution or asylum as an epileptic, feeble-minded, or
insane patient, shall be capable of contracting marriage
without or before the issuance of the County Clerk of
the licence to marry, filing in the office of the said County
Clerk a verified certificate from two regularly licensed
physicians of the State that such person has been com-
pletely cured of such insanity, epilepsy, imbecility, or
feeble-mindedness, and that there is no probability that
such person will transmit any of such defects or disabilities
to the issue of such marriage. Any person of sound
mind who shall inter-marry with such insane person or
idiot, or person who has been so confined as an epileptic,
feeble'-mindedi imbecile, or insane person, in any public
institution or asylum, except upon the filing of certificate
as herein provided, with knowledge of the disability of
such person, or who shall advise, aid, abet, c^use, pro-

MARRIAGE OF DEGENERATES FORBIDDEN. 1 35

cure, or assist in procuring any such marriage contrary to
the provisions of this section, shall be deemed guilty of a
felony; and on conviction thereof in any Court of com-
petent jurisdiction, shall be punished by a fine of not more
than 1000 dollars, or by imprisonment in the State prison
at Jackson for not less than one year or more than four
years ; or by both such fine and imprisonment in the discre-
tion of the Court."

The following is the affidavit made by applicants for
permission to marry: —

, an applicant for a licence for marriage betweea
h self and , being duly sworn, deposes and says

that is acquainted with the laws of Michigan relative to

marriage, as printed upon the back of this blank ; that there is no
legal impediment to the marriage of h self and the other person
named ; and that to the best of h knowledge and belief the fol-
lowing statements are true.

Name, age, etc., of male Do. of female

Sworn and subscribed to before me, a in and for

County Michigan, this day of 190

Name of Clergyman or Magistrate

Residence

On the back of this affidavit is a synopsis of the above
Marriage Act, entitled, "Who may and who may not
marry." After this form has been duly filled in, a marriage
licence is issued to any person authorized to join the man
and woman in marriage. This licence has also a synopsis
of the above Act printed on the back of it. The marriage
may be solemnized by a magistrate or judge of private or
municipal Court, or by any Christian minister; all such
having to keep proper records. Both parties to the in-
tending marriage must appear before the clerk who issues
the permit to marry. It will be noted that the Act refers
to syphilitic and gonorrhoea patients, and if any wish to
see the great advantage to the public health of such a
proviso, I would refer them to Chapter XVII. It is also a
strong point that the Act punishes those sane persons who
inter-marry with the insane, so protecting children and
preventing the marriage of insane persons for financial
gain. I understand that Dr. Cressy L. Wilbur, one who
has always had the public health foremost in his mind,

136 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

has worked hard to secure the above Act. I am obliged
to Mr. G. Prescott, Secretary of State, for a copy of the
Act, etc. The Act refers only to those degenerates who
have been confined in institutions. It should be extended
to all degenerates, and this omission is a grave defect in
this Act. Of the medical certificate two things are re-
quired—first, that the degenerate has been " completely
cured"; and second, that "there is no probability that
such person will transmit any such defects or disabilities
to the issue of such marriage."

Delaware. — This Act was passed in 1893, and provides
— " If any pauper supported in the almshouse shall marry,
he shall be dismissed. If the overseer consent to such
marriage, he shall be removed. If any minister of the
gospel shall knowingly solemnize such marriage, he shall
be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall be fined 50
dollars."

This is a good Act in so far as it goes. If it were in
force in England, we should hear much less of the "un-
employed " chronic cry, and even less if we increased the
age of marriage from fourteen and twelve years to twenty-
four for the male and twenty-one for the female.

Connecticut State, July 4th, 1895. — ' ' No man and woman,
either of whom is epileptic, or imbecile, or feeble-minded,
shall inter-marry or live together as husband and wife,
when the woman is under forty-five years of age."

"Any person violating, or attempting to violate, any of
the provisions of the section shall be imprisoned in the
State prison not less than three years."

' ' Every man who shall carnally know any^female under
the age of forty-five years who is epileptic, imbecile, or
feeble-minded, or pauper, shall be imprisoned in the State
prison for not less than three years."

"Everyman who is epileptic who shall carnally know
any female under forty-five years, and every female under
the age of forty-five years who shall consent to be carnally
known by any man who is epileptic, imbecile, or feeble-
minded, shall be imprisoned in the State prison for not less
than three years."

This Act refers to all degenerates. It is a mistake, I
think, to limit the age of females, as how can these people

MARRIAGE OF DEGENERATES FORBIDDEN. 137

carry about a certificate of their birth with them ? The
making it illegal for any man to carnally know a "pauper"
or idiot goes to meet our difficulty in dealing with imbecile
prostitutes and such large class. The Act also makes it
illegal for the epileptic (sane) male to have sexual inter-
course with any woman under forty-five years old, and also
it makes it illegal for any woman to have sexual inter-
course with any male degenerate. This is a most im-
portant feature. Our English law makes it an offence if
a man has unlawful sexual intercourse with a (female)
idiot or imbecile with or without her consent (48 and 49
Vict. c. 69). It does not make it illegal to have inter-
course with an idiot if she be married to the man.
Further, it does not seem to me to apply to ordinary
epileptics, lunatics, and other degenerates. Also — and our
law is very lax in this — that it does not make it an offence
if the sane woman has unlawful sexual intercourse with
the idiot, etc., male. In all our Acts relating to these
questions we appear to have ignored the powers of the
female to be the active party. It is the same with our
Criminal' Law Amendment Act, for here no provision is
made to punish the woman who has unlawful sexual inter-
course with boys under thirteen and sixteen. It cannot
be too strongly driven home that just as the elderly male
sexual pervert seeks the society of girls under sixteen, so
what I may term " the female roue," a not unknown
person, seeks out the young boys and often ruins them for
life.

This Act also goes further than other Acts because it
refers to sexual intercourse with degenerates, even if both
parties be unmarried. In this respect it is in advance. I
would here suggest that our Criminal Law Amendment
Act should be amended so as to protect boys and young
men as well as girls and young women.

Minnesota. —

Chapter 234— S. F. No. 185.

An Act regulating marriage and prohibiting marriage by or with
persons afflicted with imbecility, feeble-mindedness, epilepsy,
or insanity, and prescribing penalties for' the punishment of
persons violating the provisions of this Act.

138 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota: —

Section i. — No woman under the age of forty-five (45) years or
man of any age, except he marry a woman over the age of forty-
five (45) years, either of whom is epileptic, imbecile, feeble-minded,,
or afflicted with insanity, shall hereafter inter-marry or marry
any other person within this State. It is also hereby made unlaw-
ful for any person to marry any such feeble-minded, imbecile, or
epileptic person, or any one afflicted with insanity.

Section 2. — No ofificer authorized by law to issue marriage
licences in this State shall hereafter issue such a licence to any
persons either of whom is afflicted with any of the diseases men-
tioned in Section i of this Act, knowing them to be so afflicted,
unless the female party to such marriage is over the age of forty-
five years.

Section 3.— No. clergyman or officer authorized by law to
solemnize marriages within this State, shall hereafter perform a
marriage ceremony, uniting persons in matrimony, either of whom
is afflicted with epilepsy, imbecility, feeble-mindedness, or insanity,
knowing them to be so afflicted, unless the female party to such
marriage is over the age of forty-five years.

Section 4. — Any person violating any of the provisions of this
Act shall upon conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not more
than one thousand dollars ($1000), or by imprisonment in the
State's prison for not more than three (3) years, or by both such
fine and imprisonment.

Section 5. — This Act shall take effect and be in force from and
after its passage.

Approved April nth, 1901.

The following' is the form of permit to marry: —

No. 747. Application for marriage licence. Class 4.
State of Minnesota"! q c
County of J ' '

I , being duly sworn on oath, represent and

state — That I reside in the County of , State of ,

and that I desire to procure a licence to be joined in marriage
unto . That I am of the full age of twenty-one (21)

years, that the said lady is of the full age of eighteen (18) years,
and is a resident of the County of , State of Minnesota.

That I have no wife living, and that the said lady has no husband
living. That we are no nearer kin than first cousins. That neither
I nor the said lady have been divorced by any decrees in any Court
made and entered within six months prior to the date of applica-
tion. That I am not, neither is the said lady, epileptic, imbecile.

MARRIAGE OF DEGENERATES FORBIDDEN. 1 39

feeble-minded, or afflicted with insanity , and that there

is no legal impediment to the said contemplated marriage.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this day of

A.D. igo .

Clerk to the District Court.

If the lady is forty-five years old, the fact may be so stated in
the blank space after the word "insanity": when so stated the
words, " neither is said," may be erased.

Marriage Licence and Certificate.

State of Minnesota, District Court for the County of Ramsey.
To any person lawfully authorized to solemnize marriages within
the said State.
Know ye, that Licence is hereby granted to join together as
husband and wife , of the County of ,

and State of , and , of the County

of Ramsey, and State of Minnesota, being satisfied by oath of said
, and that there is no lawful impediment thereto.
Therefore this shall be your sufficient authority for solemnizing
the marriage of said parties, and making return thereof, as provided
by law.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed
the seal of the District Court at St. Paul, this day of

190 .

Clerk.
By , Deputy Clerk.

New Jersey, March 28th, 1904. —
Chapter 137.

A Supplement to the Act entitled " An Act for the punishment of
crimes" [Revision of 1898], approved June fourteenth, one
thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight.

Be it enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of
New Jersey :

I. It shall be unlawful hereafter for any person who has been
confined in any public asylum or instilution as an epileptic, or
insane, or feeble-minded patient, to intermarry in this State, without
a certificate from two regularly licensed physicians of this State that
such person has been completely cured of such insanity, epilepsy, or
feeble mind, and that there is no probability that such person will
transmit any of said defects or disabilities to the issue of such
marriage ; any person of sound mind who shall intermarry with
any such epileptic, insane, or feeble-minded person, with knowledge
of his or her disability, or who shall advise, aid, abet, cause or assist

140 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

in procuring any marriage contrary to the provisions of this Act
shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.

2. This Act shall take effect immediately.

This Act, like the Michigan law, refers to any person who
has been confined in any public institution as epileptic,
insane, or feeble-minded who intermarries without a
certificate from two State physicians certifying that such
person has been completely cured, and that there is "no
probability that such person will transmit any of the said
defects or disabilities to the issue of such marriage." Any
person of sound mind who intermarries with any of the
above, or who shall advise, aid, abet, cause or assist in
marrying such, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour. It is
very important that the sane person who aids in bringing
about the marriage of degenerates shall be severely
punished. Probably the major number of degenerates are
in institutions, and so this would have a wide effect ; which
would be better if the Act referred to all degenerates.

Ohio, April 1904. —

An Act
To amend Section 6389 of the Revised Statutes of Ohio, relating
to publication of banns and how and when marriage licence may
be procured.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly aithe State of Ohio :

Section i. — That Section 6389 of the Revised Statutes of Ohio be
amended so as to read as follows : —

Sec. 6389. — Previous to persons being joined in marriage, notice
thereof shall be published (in the presence of the congregation) on
two different days of public worship ; the first publication to be at
least ten days previous to such marriage, within the county where
the female resides ; or, a licence shall be obtained for that purpose
from the probate judge in the county where such female may
reside ; and no licence shall be granted where either of the parties,
applicants therefor, is an habitual drunkard, epileptic, imbecile, or
insane, or who at the time of making application for said licence is
under the influence of any intoxicating liquor or narcotic drug.

Section 2. — Said original Section 6389 is hereby repealed.

HoLLis C. Johnston,
Speaker pro tern, oj the House of Representatives.

W. G. Harding,

President of the Senate.
Passed April 8th, 1904.
Approved April 1 5th, 1904J

Myron T. Herrick, Governor.

MARRIAGE OF DEGENERATES FORBIDDEN. 14I

This Act embraces a large number of degenerates. No
licence to marry shall be granted where either of the
applicants is an habitual drunkard, epileptic, imbecile, or
insane, or who when applying is intoxicated with any
intoxicating liquor or narcotic drug.

Indiana, August 1905. —

"Section 3. — No licence to marry shall be issued
where either of the contracting parties is an imbecile,
epileptic, of unsound mind, or under guardianship as a
person of unsound mind, nor to any male person who
is, or has been, within five years an inmate of any
county asylum, or home for indigent persons, unless it
satisfactorily appears that the cause of such condition
has been removed, and that such male applicant is able
to support a family and likely to so continue ; nor shall
any licence issue when either of the contracting parties
is affected with a transmissible disease, that at the time of
making application is under the influence of an intoxicating
liquor or narcotic drug."

North Dakota. —

In this State the Senate passed a Bill (not adopted
by the House of Representatives) which proposed to
establish a board of examining physicians and that no
one could be married unless free from mental and
physical disease, and especially free from hereditary
diseases, such as tuberculosis, insanity, and dipsomania.

It may be said that the clerks to the District Courts who
issue the "permits to marry," along with the printed
references as to who shall marry whom, form a kind of
board of examining physicians. But this is not sufficient,
as such clerks or applicants know little or nothing about
their physical health, nor will they recognize publicly any
insanity in their ancestors, either direct or collateral.
I think my proposal in Chapter X., demanding a pre-nuptial
certificate of good health, would give better results.

State of Pennsylvania Bill (to be referred to further on).

I may add that, although it has been stated in some
English papers that the States of Georgia, Tennessee,
Colorado, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Alabama possess
similar Acts to the above, my correspondence with the
Secretaries of State up to October 1903 showed that these

142 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

had not any such Acts. I cannot express too high
appreciation of the many kindnesses of the U.S.A.
officials to me in supplying information.

As before stated, even if England adopt such Acts, they
will not go far to cure the present condition of affairs.
The Americans focus too much attention upon the mere
ceremony of a marriage ; because it follows that if these
degenerates do not marry they will still go on begetting
degenerate offspring, and so cursing it with disease and a
living death. Again, we cannot punish those found non-
responsible for any of their acts. As I have before stated,
these Acts are good in so far as they go, and in so far as
they show that we must amend our marriage laws — they
must fail in dealing with degraded degenerates whose
sexual desires are very strong, their whole being having
concentrated itself upon debauchery and filth.

Suggestions.

{a) That it be illegal for any person to promise to marry
any idiot, epileptic, imbecile, feeble-minded, lunatic, dip-
somaniac, or habitual drunkard, or drug habitue, or for
any person to aid, abet, or bring about the engagement of
such person.

(b) That it be illegal for any person to issue a permit or
licence to marry ; or to join in marriage any idiot, imbecile,
epileptic, feeble-minded, lunatic, dipsomaniac, klepto-
maniac, sexual pervert, drug habitue, habitual criminal,
habitual vagrant, or person who is suffering from uncured
syphilis or gonorrhoea, unless the person issuing such
permit is supplied by the applicant for the permit with a
certificate signed by two medical practitioners certifying
that the applicant is permanently cured, and that the child
or children of such issue will not inherit any parental
defect or other injury. Any person found guilty in a
court of law of any sexual offence showing him or her to
be a sexual pervert shall not be given a permit to marry
or be joined in marriage, unless sterilized.

(c) That it be illegal for any sane person — male or
female — to marry any idiot, epileptic, feeble-minded, deaf
mute, habitual inebriate, drug habitui, lunatic, confirmed

MARRIAGE OF DEGENERATES FORBIDDEN. I43

criminal, habitual vagrant, or person who has no visible
means of supporting a wife and family.

(d) That it be illegal for any sane male or female to
have sexual intercourse with any male or female idiot,
epileptic, feeble-minded, lunatic or imbecile, or "back-
ward " person under the age of forty-five years.

(e) That it be illegal to issue a permit to marry, or to
join in marriage any habitual criminal, habitual vagabond,
public prostitute, or any female person physically deformed
in the pelvis.

(/) That it be illegal to issue a permit to marry or to
join in marriage any person suffering from uncured tuber-
culosis, leprosy, cancer, syphilis, or gonorrhoea.

(g) That the penalty for breach of any of the above
provisions be a fine not exceeding ;^5ooo and not less
than £$0, or imprisonment for five years ; or both, and
double those for a second or subsequent offence.

CHAPTER XX.

PROPOSED STERILIZATION OF CERTAIN MENTAL DEGENERATES
AND PHYSICAL DETERIORANTS.

This is a proposal which I first made publicly in 1903. I
do not put it forward as the only means of checking
degeneracy — far from this. Any one who has read
Sterilization, or who has read the previous chapters,
can see that just as there are many causes of degeneracy,
so there must be many different methods of preventing
the many causes. The operation consists in excising and
ligaturing the divided ends of, in the male, the vasa
deferentia, or spermatic cords, and in the female, the
fallopian tubes.

I may mention that the vasa deferentia are the two
small tubes through which pass the seminal fluid from the
testes towards the penis, and that, therefore, if these be
divided and ligatured, the fertilizing material cannot
escape from the testes. Also the fallopian tubes are two
small tubes through which pass the ova (or eggs) from
the ovaries to the womb, and that, therefore, if these be
divided and ligatured, these ova cannot escape from the
ovaries into the womb. Therefore, neither impregnation
nor conception can take place.

As before stated, it should be made illegal for any
person to castrate or mutilate any male or female for the
purpose of preventing the begetting of degenerates. By
"castration" I mean removal of the testes or ovaries.
I also object to the term "asexualization," because this
means the destroying of the sex of the person, a "de-
struction " which cannot be carried out. I do not object
to the term " mutilate " if it be applied to the person who
begot or who brought forth a degenerate. The appear-
ances or features which we group together when defining
the terms "man" and "woman" cannot be effaced by
any operation such as I have proposed.

I divide sterilization, as to its application, into two
kinds — voluntary and compulsory.

144

PROPOSED STERILIZATION. 145

Voluntary Sterilisation. — Under the voluntary form, the
sane persons would agree of their own free will to be
sterilized. As examples of this I would refer to the sane
woman who has deformed pelvis. If such become pregnant
she will run a grave risk. She will require to be operated
upon, and her child in her womb may have to be killed
(craniotomy); or she may have the abdomen and womb
opened, and the child extracted through the opening
(caesarian section). Sometimes when this latter operation
is performed, the ovaries are removed, so that she cannot
again conceive. I would suggest that only the minor
operation of dividing and ligaturing the fallopian tubes be
carried out. Again, if a sane woman before marriage finds
out that she has so grave a deformity of her pelvis, or is a
deformed cripple, I would allow her, of her own wish, to
be sterilized. Again, the sane woman found to be suffering
from cancer of the womb, or fibroid tumours of the womb,
should be permitted to be sterilized either immediately
before or after marriage. Again, the sane men and women
who suffer from incurable diseases of the lungs or other
chief organs, should if they so agree to it, be permitted to
be sterilized. Again, the sane persons who know that they
have a marked history or pedigree of insanity in their
relatives, and who wish to marry, but are determined not
to curse any children with their degeneracy, should be given
the power to be sterilized. Again, the married women who
become insane only when pregnant, after or while suckling,
should be privileged to be sterilized. These have no wish
to become insane again, nor to bear degenerate children.
Again, those who have been insane, and who cannot obtain
a certificate certifying that they are incapable of handing
down their degeneracy to offspring, but who are classed as
"recovered," and who wish to marry, or to resume
conjugal relations, should be allowed to select sterilization.
Compulsory Sterilization, and who should be Sterilized. — ■
Under this head I would include all idiots, imbeciles,
feeble-minded, epileptics, lunatics, deaf-mutes, defective
and backward children, habitual inebriates, habitual
vagrants, public prostitutes, many sexual perverts, and
markedly neurotic persons. To all these we must say :
You may marry if you wish — we do not advise you ; you

146 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

may have sexual intercourse — we cannot prevent you ; you
are jerry empire-builders, and a grave danger to the nation,
and so we cannot and will not permit you to hand down
your degeneracy to inoffensive and harmless children, or to
add to the sum-total of human parasites, who, by loading
the alreadyovertaxed taxpayer, prevents him from marrying,
or drives him to restrict the increase of his family.

The Anatomy of the Spermatic Cords and Fallopian Tubes.
— For the benefit of non-medical persons, I would state that
the spermatic cords extend from the upper portion of the
testes to the points where they enter the abdomen at the
inguinal canals. Each spermatic cord contains the (i) vas
deferens (the tube along which the spermatic fluid passes
from the testicle) ; (2) the spermatic artery (which carries
the pure blood to the testicle, nourishing it) ; (3) the sper-
matic veins (which carry away the impure bipod from the
testicle); (4) nerves ; (5) lymphatics ; and (6) areolar tissue,
the cord being covered by the skin, etc., common to that
covering the testicle. The vas deferens can be felt under
the skin, giving a hard, cord-like feel to the fingers passing
over the skin. Some other small arteries nourish these
parts — i.e., the artery of the vas deferens, and the
cremasteric. It will be noted that if only the vas deferens
be divided and ligatured, the blood-supply to and from the
testicle is not interfered with — the testicle being nourished ;
but if the spermatic cord be divided and ligatured, the blood
supply is cut off to the testicle.

As regards the fallopian tubes, these extend from the
upper angles of the uterus outwards and towards the
ovaries. They do not contain any important artery (the
"ovarian" and "uterine" arteries travelling by other
routes). So that if the tubes be divided and ligatured, the
supply of blood to the ovaries is not interfered with, a
point which makes the dividing of these tubes not so
prominent a feature as that of dividing the spermatic cords.

Who should Operate .^— 'Ho person should perform the
operation of sterilization for the purpose of preventing the
begetting of degenerates, without the official permission
of the Lunacy Commissioners of England, Scotland, or
Ireland ; and the Commissioners should inquire into the
history of the person to be operated upon, and take any

PROPOSED STERILIZATION. 147

other steps they consider necessary. No person should
operate except those specially appointed by the Com-
missioners. The result of each operation should be com-
municated to the Commissioners by the person who,
operated. A report containing full and complete details
should be laid annually before both Houses of Parliament.
If the Lunacy Commissioners refuse to act, then each
County Council, through its Asylum Committee, should
sanction the operation.

Penalties for Wrongfully Operating, etc. — If any person
sterilize any person for the purpose of the prevention of
the begetting (or the conceiving) of offspring, without the
consent of the Lunacy Commissioners ; or if any person
operate for any immoral or unlawful purpose ; or if any
person issue a permit to marry, or join in marriage, or
marry any sterilized person without first notifying the fact-
of sterilization to the non-sterilized person, a penalty of
fifteen years' penal servitude should follow conviction in a
Court of Law. If a sane husband or sane wife, or the
sane man and woman about to become husband and wife,
wish to be sterilized, such persons must first obtain the
consent of the Lunacy Commissioners.

Would it be Lawful to Sterilize ? — This question can best
be answered by referring to precedents, etc. As our
references refer chiefly to " castration," they maybe taken
to illustrate the law and custom as it would now bear
upon a much less serious operation — namely, dividing and
ligaturing either the vasa deferentia, spermatic cords, or
fallopian tubes.

I have elsewhere referred to the making of eunuchs in
Old and New Testament times, and to the action of
Mohammedan countries ; to the legality of our present;
custom of castrating thousands of animals in the United
Kingdom, and to ordinary surgical operations upon the
ovaries and testes.

With reference to the bearing of the English law upon
the subject of surgical operations generally, the law:
provides that no surgeon is empowered by law to perform
any surgical operation upon any person. Every surgical
operation is legally an assault, and consequently the-
consent of the patient, or the relatives, or the guardian;

148 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

is secured before operating. The law does not even
empower any surgeon to kill the child in the womb with
the view of saving the life of the pregnant woman. Sir
J. F. Stephen, in his Digest of the Criminal Law, Arts. 204,
205 and 206, says that every person has the right to
consent to a surgical operation upon himself, or upon his
child ; that if the person is incapable of giving consent to
a surgical operation, it is not a crime to operate without
consent ; that every person has a right to consent to the
infliction of bodily harm, not amounting to a maim. He
states that castration is a "maim." It follows, I think,
that all operations when necessary to the saving of life, or
in the improving of the person's health, is a justifiable
"maim." Further, I would contend that sterilizing a
person so as to save him begetting mental degenerates is
a necessary, and, therefore, a lawful operation.

What is the action of surgeons to-day in reference to
castration of persons ? By castration, I mean the opera-
tions for removal of the ovaries (ovariotomy) ; of the
womb (hysterotomy) ; removal of the fallopian tubes
(fallotomy) ; and removal of the testes (orchotomy).

Referring first to removal of these organs •when diseased.
Here we have diseased ovaries, wombs, fallopian tubes,
and testes removed because they are diseased. On
examining the annual reports of the voluntary hospitals
of the United Kingdom, I have found that in one year,
1904, not less than 2000 women and men were operated
upon because of disease of the sexual organs — i.e., removal
of the uterus, both ovaries, both fallopian tubes on both
testes. How many were so operated upon outside of
these hospitals I cannot state. No one objects, or has
objected, to these operations. But when ovariotomy was
introduced into England, some few surgeons said that
" the operator should be placed in the criminal dock,"
while efforts — fortunately unsuccessful — were made to
secure the dismissal of Sir Spencer Wells and others from
their position as surgeons to women's hospitals.

Next, referring to the removal of healthy ovaries and
healthy testes for the purpose of curing diseases in other
organs of the body, or because the ovaries or testes
are not in their natural place. Thus, the healthy testes

PROPOSED STERILIZATION. 149

are removed because of disease of the prostate gland.
C. Wallace has collected statistics relating- to 315 men who
had their testes removed for this complaint. The healthy
ovaries are removed for the cure of fibroid tumours of the
uterus. The healthy ovaries are removed for the cure of
moUitis osstum, a disease in which the bones of the woman
become soft; the healthy ovaries are removed when the
pregnant woman with the deformed pelvis is operated
upon for the caesarian section, so that she may not
become pregnant again; and the healthy ovaries and
testes are removed when they do not follow the usual
course, but are detained in some abnormal position. No
one objects to this castration by removal of healthy ovaries
or testes for the cure or alleviation of physical diseases.
Why should they ?

Referring to the castration of persons for mental disease,
some American surgeons have adopted this procedure.
Bacon castrated some males suffering from chronic epilepsy,
and in which the genital organs were the cause of the
■epilepsy, and "obtained great improvement" in their
suffering.

In animals, veterinary surgeons perform castration for
both diseased and healthy ovaries or testes. In double
•cryptorcid horses, "rigs," where the testes have not
descended into the bag or scrotuixi, both testes are
removed. In vexatious mares which become very
troublesome, fretful and irritable at races and elsewhere,
the removal of both ovaries has given good results.

Again, Nature herself, the greatest physician, sterilizes
some animals. Thus, it is said that the mule, the cross
between a horse and an ass, is sterile ; that when a cow
gives birth to twins, male and female, the female calf is
sterile, being termed a "freemartin"; and that some idiots
are sterile. Many wild animals when placed in captivity
become sterile (Darwin).

It is therefore a fact that the operation of castration is
now fully recognized and fully accepted — that it is a lawful
•operation for the removal of both diseased and healthy
sexual organs, and for the cure oi physical diseases. And
if we sterilize persons because they suffer from physical
diseases, why should we not go one step farther and adopt

I50 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

my proposal, so that we may lessen the sufferings of many
degenerates, and adopt a measure which would prevent
many mentally diseased from being ever begotten ?

The Effects of Sterilization upon the Sexual Character-
istics. — Experiments made upon animals bear upon three
features — (a) sexual desire, (V) sexual power, and (c)
power to impregnate. These experiments prove that
when the vasa deferentia are divided and ligatured (vasec-
tomy) the testes do not wither or atrophy, and that there is
sexual desire, sexual power, but no power to impregnate.
(This is the operation I suggest in cases of voluntary
sterilization.) ^

When the spermatic cords are divided and ligatured
(spermectomy) the testes do atrophy and there is no
sexual desire, no sexual power, and no power to impreg-
nate. (This is the operation I suggest in cases of com-
pulsory sterilization, and especially for sexual perverls.)
Therefore, in both vasectomy and spermectomy all power
to impregnate is lost absolutely.

In the Proceedi?igs of the Royal Society, vol. 73, Nt,
1904, some most instructive experiments by S. G. Shattock
and C. Gi Seligman are therein described. In one experi-
ment double vasectomy was performed upon a young ram.
(It is of importance to note that the ram was a young one.)
When he was fully grown he was put with two ewes,
when he had sexual intercourse with them; the ewes, how-
ever, did not become pregnant. The ram was killed
eighteen months after the operation, and it was found that
the testes had grown and had reached the normal size
characteristic of the ram. Here, the blood-supply to the
testes had not been interfered with, and so there was no
atrophy of these organs ; further, when a microscopic
examination was made, it was found that the testes con-
tained healthy spermatozoa.

The above gentlemen performed other experiments upon
young cocks. Thus, double vasectomy was performed
under chloroform upon a bird eight weeks old. It was
killed twelve months after, and the testes were found to
be quite normal. In the second operation on a cock eight
weeks old, the vas deferens of the right side was ligatured,
while the testicle was removed (castration or caponization)

PROPOSED STERILIZATION. 151

on the left side. Twelve months after, on being put with
a hen, the cock had sexual intercourse with the hen.
Eighteen months after the cock was killed. The right
testicle was fully developed and contained spermatozoa,
while on the left side no testicle was to be found.

In another experiment the testes were not entirely
removed, portions being left ; or what the authors term
" grafts." In such cases male external characters seemed
to be developed according to the size of the graft. It did
not matter as to whether the grafts grew in the usual
locality in which the testicles lie, or whether they "were
found in situations far removed from the normal and
altogether disconnected from the nerve supply proper to
the testicle." Such " gra.fts " had no communication with
outside channels, but they contained tubuli similar to those
found in the normal testicle, and these contained live
spermatozoa.

These experiments were conducted to show that the
" secondary sexual characters " of male animals are due to
a secretion in the testicle other than that of the seminal
fluid. Thus, in cocks who underwent the operation of
vasectomy, the spurs, tail, feathers, head, and hackles
were fully developed — that is, those external characters
which go to make up the external male appearance. But
in no case did the growth or health of the animals suffer.
In case of incomplete castration or caponization of cocks,
all these " secondary " external characters were developed.
In the rams, also, these external secondary characters were
fully developed after vasectomy — horns, head, etc., but
were not developed in those castrated.

The action of these "grafts" suggests the question. If
these experiments apply to spermectomy or vasectomy in
young degenerates, and if some are so very anxious that
these degenerates shall have their "external secondary
sexual characters " developed, why not transplant some
small portions of the testes to the body of the person
operated upon ? Naturally, it follows that if the ' ' secon-
dary sexual characters " of degenerates be developed
before spermectomy is performed, the operation would not
affect these characters.

The above experiments confirm and extend the range of

152 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

similar experiments. Thus, in 1775, John Hunter showed
that when there was no direct connection between the vas
deferens and the testicle, the latter remained normal in
man. In 1823 Astley Cooper divided the vas deferens on
one side and the vessels of the cord on the other. In 1826
the dog copulated, but the bitch did not become pregnant,
this being due to the ligatured vas, and the fact that
the other testicle sloughed. In 1842 Curling repeated
these experiments in dogs and cats, when he found that
the testes remained normal. Gosselen, J. Griffiths, and
C. Wallace have also carried out minute inquiries upon this
subject. C. Wallace, in one experiment, ligatured the
blood-vessels of the cord, but left the vas deferens un-
touched. Five months after, the dog was killed, when the
testes were found to be atrophied. C. Wallace's experi-
ments confirm the facts that the prostate gland atrophied
after double castration, while double vasectomy produced
no wasting. Shattock also found that no wasting of the
glands of Cowper followed double vasectomy, but that
atrophy followed double castration in the young ram. In
fact, it may be truly said that no part of the human body
has had more attention paid to it by surgeons, owing to
the fact that this portion of the body often suifers from
undescended testicle, varicocele of the veins of the cord,
descent of bowel (rupture), and various affections of the
testes and prostate.

I would next call attention to some very interesting
experiments by Dr. Albers-Schonberg — described in the
Munich Medical Journal of October 27th, 1903— on "the
action of the Rontgen rays on the sexual organs of some
animals." Generally speaking, the experiments show
that when male rabbits and guinea-pigs were exposed to
the action of the rays for a few minutes every other day,
and for a period of about twelve to fifteen total days, and
when they were afterwards placed in hatches with female
rabbits and guinea-pigs, the males had sexual desire and
sexual power, but no power to impregnate, although some
of the females had been before pregnant. The experi-
menter states that he has not yet finally decided whether
the effects are temporary or permanent as regards the
sterility. In no case did the bodily health suffer to any

PROPOSED STERILIZATION, 1 53

severe extent, while the testes, vasa, and seminal vesicles
remained healthy.

Dr. Loudon has lately experimented with radium. He
placed rabbits in a small cage and exposed them to the
action of this substance for sixteen days. At the end of
sixteen months the animals were killed and the testes
were found not to contain any spermatozoa.

It should be made illegal for any person, without the
consent of the Lunacy Commissioners, to apply the
Rontgen rays to any person. It would be a dangerous
procedure in this country, where it is not illegal for any
person to practise any branch of medicine, and where
there are so many non-medical persons using the X-rays.

The Effects oj Sterilization upon the General and
Mental Health.

No one has yet put forward any evidence to show
that removal of the testes or ovaries aifects the physical
or mental well-being of the person operated upon.
Veterinary surgeons have not produced any evidence from
the animal world, though millions of cattle have been
castrated. We know, on the other hand, that animals
improve in nutrition and become more docile after castra-
tion. Again, history records the fact that eunuchs
attained high social, political, and military eminence,
thus showing that castration did not weaken their mental
powers. One sometimes hears descriptions — fables from
the East, one may call them — where eunuchs are described
as "lazy," "treacherous," and "good for nothing." I
fancy a goodly number of wow-castrated persons having
the above peculiar traits can be found in English cities !
There was once a visitor to Egypt, filled with tales from
The Arabian Nights, who determined to invade a harem
filled with "Eastern beauty" only! What was his
shattered ideal when a "fair Circassian" put her head
out from a window and shouted, in broad Lancashire

dialect, to her companions: "Well, I'm d d, if that

isn't old Tommy Wilkinson from Liverpool ! " Such are
the deluded persons who "spin yarns " to an ignorant
public of the ill effects of castration. These know as little

1 54 RACE. CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

of my proposal as did one of two gentlemen who, when
about to drink a " Cherry cocktail," found the cherry
missing, but was consoled by the statement of his friend
that the drink had been "Rentouled" — the "stone "had
been removed ! So with the- illiterate ; fancies take the
place which should be filled with facts. It is sometimes
alleged — nay, gravely stated that castration of human
beings causes insanity ! This wild allegation has no facts
to support it. The shock of any injury, of any operation,
may bring latent insanity to the surface, ovariotomy and
removal of the testes included ; but these operations are
not a cause. In the Lancet of November 4th, 1905,
Dr. Alban Doran, referring to one hundred operations in
which the ovaries had been removed for uterine fibroids,
states that in two cases certain mental symptoms appeared,
and in these it turned out, on inquiry, that one patient was
of marked intemperate (alcoholic) habits, while the other
was mentally affected for several years before the opera-
tion. He also quotes Dr. Picqu6 as stating that eighty-
nine per cent, of insane women under his care suffered
from uterine or ovarian complaints.

I have elsewhere referred to the experiments of Shattock
and Seligman, which show that vasectomy does not
interfere with the development of the secondary sexual
characters of animals, and that castration does not
interfere in any way with their health.

Dr. Alban Doran has informed me that an Italian
surgeon stated to him that just as women who suffered
from moUitis ossiuvi became stronger and larger in their
bones after they had had their ovaries removed, so it was
noticed that the bones of the choir " castrati " became
strongly developed after the operation. Need I do more
than again refer to the marked improvement in health of
women who have had their ovaries, some healthy and
some diseased, removed? That castration improves the
moral conduct of human degenerates is proved by what
Dr. Pilcher of the " Institute for Feeble-minded Children,"
Winfield, Kansas, U.S.A., says. He states that he had
castrated, lately, fifty-eight boys in the institution, with
the result that in almost every case a marked improve-
ment in their mental and physical states was shown. The

PROPOSED STERILIZATION. 155

usual "howl " followed, but the trustees of the institution
reported as follows: — "Those who are now criticizing
Dr. Pilcher will, in a few years, be talking of erecting a
memorial to his memory." It is a pity he did not sterilize
these. Hood has operated upon twenty-six cases, in the
Hospital for Epileptics, Massachusetts. The temper was
improved in all but three, and the sexual appetite dis-
appeared in all but two ; while the effect upon the epileptics
was favourable, the attacks ceasing altogether, or return-
ing but in one case, after immunity for two years.

It is not necessary for me to discuss the question of
curing the mental condition of idiots, imbeciles, feeble-
minded, epileptics, lunatics, habitual criminals, habitual
inebriates, and deaf-mutes. These cannot be really cured.
Their suffering may be made lighter by sterilization. I
have not brought forward my proposal of sterilization for
the curing of present degenerates, but for seven definite
purposes : — First, that certain mental degenerates may be
so operated on that they cannot beget offspring ; second, that
it is a measure which will keep us from cursing helpless
children from being brought into this world tainted with
incurable mental disease and suffering; third, that it will
lessen the total number of degenerates; fourth, that it
will lessen crime and sexual offences ; fifth, that it will, in
some cases, do away with lifelong imprisonment; sixth,
that it will lessen the heavy expenditure on the upkeep of
the unfit; and, seventh, that it will be a natural object-
lesson to the people of this country, that they must exert
more care in begetting healthy offspring.

As I have had so many correspondents suggesting that
if my proposal be adopted the health of the persons
operated upon will suffer, and in view that the above facts
will not entirely convince them to the contrary view, I
wrote lately to Professor Sherrington of the Liverpool
University — he is Professor of Physiology at this uni-
versity — and he replies as follows: — "I know of no
evidence that removal of the testes or ovaries harms the
general nutrition of the body, apart from its well-known
influence when performed in earlier life upon the associated
•organs of sex. There has arisen, in recent years, more
and more evidence of the close harmony based on ill-

156 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

understood chemical inter-relationship obtaining between
various glandular functions, so that thfe activity of even
distant secretory organs is co - ordinated ; but that
removal of the testes or ovary harms the general health
of the individual, otherwise than in sexual capacities, I
do not know of any ascertained facts to show." Surely
this is sufficient to convince intelligent minds. Dr. Jolly,
writing from the Physiological Laboratory, University of
Edinburgh, March 1906, says : — " In the animals in which
I have ligatured vasa and fallopian tubes, I have not
observed any ill effects to follow."

Lately, JDrs. Marshall and Jolly have stated (see Trans.
Roy. Soc, vol. 198, 1905) that the mammalian ovaries,
as well as supplying the ova, elaborate an internal secre-
tion which reacts upon the tissues of the body generally,
this secretion being formed by the corpus lutem and the
ovarian cells. They, further, relate some experiments bear-
ing upon the grafting of ovaries upon the loose tissue of
the groin of the animal. I would here again state that I
do not propose to remove the ovaries in certain degene-
rates, and so no objection can be taken to my proposal to
divide and ligature the fallopian tubes.

It is a great pity some people look upon sterilization
from a personal view, and when they are healthy. For
instance, one correspondent asked, " How would he like
his own testes to be removed?" I must again say, I have
never proposed the removal of the testes or ovaries. This
correspondent evidently does not understand that the
operation is put forward for the above seven points of
view. Further, it is a pity that castration has been,
among the non-medical public, looked upon as a punish-
ment. This, no doubt, is due to ancient history. Some
of the early "saints" castrated themselves as a punish-
ment for sin — Origen and others. I have before referred
to the " religious" sect in Russia doing the same. Saint
Thomas Acquinas calls attention to mutilation as a
punishment for crime, and holds that the State has the
power of inflicting death or mutilation.

In 1719 a Bill was carried through the (Protestant)
Irish House of Commons, proposing that all priests who
were found in Ireland should be branded upon the cheek

PROPOSED STERILIZATION. 157

with a red-hot iron. The Irish Privy Council, however,
actually changed the penalty of branding to castration,
and they forwarded the Bill with the castration clause in
it to the English Parliament for ratification. The English
Ministry, however, unanimously restored the penalty of
branding, and the Irish House of Lords refused to enter-
tain the Bill. At the beginning of the century, a similar
Bill was adopted and put into force in Sweden, and in
1700 a pamphlet was circulated advocating the adoption
of similar legislation for England.

A great amount of what one can — with the greatest
wish to be charitable — term nonsense, has been said of
my proposal. For instance, one said —

" I should like to dissociate myself entirely from any
proposal tp debase the already debased by mutilation, and
I strongly protest against mutilation." I have myself
persistently protested against mutilation or castration. Yet
this writer, on my explaining my proposal to him, writes —

" Dear Dr. Rentoul, — I am much obliged to you for
bringing before me your plan for preventing conception in
weak-minded persons. Your method, I admit, seems to
be free from the injurious eflFects of castration and of spay-
ing, which are usually the methods proposed by those who
would sterilize those unfortunate persons. It was these
methods which I had in view when I alluded to this sub-
ject in my evidence before the Royal Commission on the
Feeble-minded. It is quite possible that, on mature con-
sideration, I might come to regard your method as feasible
and just, but I am not prepared to regard it in this or in
any other definite light at present. Many factors, chiefly
ethical, I allow, are concerned, and to form any opinion
worth reporting I should need some time for consideration
and some devotion of time and inquiry to the medical
issues of such operations, time which at present I cannot
possibly spare from more immediate duties. — Believe me,
yours truly, Clifford Albutt.

Cambridge, November 2\st, 1905."

Another says — " I have heard of the de-sexualization
method. I do not agree with that." I think I have pro-
duced facts to show that my proposal does not rob any

1S8 RACE culture; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

degenerate of the outward appearances which denote the
sex of a person, nor of their privilege to have sexual
intercourse — if privilege it be considered. In fact, this
witness gives no valid arguments, but a mere naked
negation, against my proposal. Are these poor creatures,
tormented with certain uncontrollable impulses, sexual or
other, not to be cpnsidered ? Have we not a right to ask :
Have they, the degenerates, not as perfect a right to
have their torments lessened or alleviated as would any
non-degenerate to demand that any disease causing him
bodily or mental suffering shall be removed or alleviated?
Surely humanity answers, "Yes."'-

A third says: "For this reason alone it seems to me
that this method of dealing with the feeble-minded and
epileptic class is better than the proposed sterilization to
avoid the cost to the State of keeping them. . . . The
males would be social outcasts. . . . The females
would not reproduce their species, but this fact would be
known and would lead directly to immorality and the spread
of venereal diseases. . . . The argument that steriliza-
tion of normal children, in the Middle .Ages, produced no
harmful effect is not applicable, for boys so dealt with for
special purposes, when they grew up, were able to hold a
good position in society." It is a somewhat nebulous
allegation that the papal choir-boys "held good positions
in society," or that the ordinary eunuch did so ! I have
also shown that sterilization of the abnormal boy or girl
degenerate will produce no harm. It is more than
difficult to see how sterilized females would act as prosti-
tutes, and be the means of spreading venereal diseases in
greater measure than their non-sterilized sisters. At
present there is more than an abundance of public and
private prostitutes, all to be had from a few coppers
upwards. It is grotesque to suggest that sane men, or
sane women, would calculatingly select idiots, imbeciles,
epileptics, feeble-minded, or lunatics, even if sterilized, for
the purpose of sexual intercourse. The idea is repulsive,
and worthy only of the worst moods of Balzac, Rabelais, or
Zola. Besides, how would a sane man know that the
female had been sterilized ? The operation will not leave

' It is very humiliating to note that some modern Christians wish to
preserve the right of sexual relations for the insane. Why ?

PROPOSED STERILIZATION. 1 59

any outward sign, nor will a vaginal examination, even by
an amateur, help. If the female said she had been steri-
lized, would any sane man, or whoremonger, take this as
"gospel" from the ordinary degenerate? But to prevent
such, and to meet the hyper-fastidious, I have proposed
that it be a crime, punishable with fifteen years' imprison-
ment, for any sane person to use a sterilized degenerate;
for any unlawful purpose. Moreover, the Criminal Law
Amendment Act would continue to protect unmarried-
female degenerates ; while the Act of the State of
Connecticut could be enacted for the United Kingdom.
I have elsewhere stated that some 2000 women had,,
during one year and in the hospitals of the United
Kingdom, their ovaries or wombs removed. Does any
sane person think of opposing such operations on the
absurd supposition that those operated upon will engage
in extra-marital sexual intercourse ? But if these objectors-
must be met, let us adopt the custom of some African
tribes, who stilch the entrance to the vagina in childhood
and remove the stitches at the marriage ceremony.

Section 5 (2) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act,
1885, reads — "Any person who unlawfully and carnally
knows, or attempts to have unlawful carnal knowledge of
any female idiot, or imbecile woman or girl, under
circumstances which do not amount to rape, but which
prove that the offender knew at the time of the commission
of the offence that the woman or girl was an idiot or
imbecile, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and being
convicted thereof, shall be liable, at the discretion of the
Court, to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two-
years, with or without hard labour." Or, again, Section 234.
of the Lunacy Act, 1900, might be widened and re-enacted.
It is as follows : — If any manager, officer, nurse, attendant,
or other person employed in any institution for lunatics
(including an asylum for criminal lunatics), or workhouse,
or any person having the care or charge of any single-
patient, or any attendant of any single patient, carnally
knows, or attempts to have carnal knowledge of any female
under care or treatment as a lunatic in the institution,
or workhouse, or as a single patient, he shall be guilty of
a misdemeanour, and, on conviction on indictment, shall.

l60 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

be liable to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, for
any term not exceeding two years ; and no consent, or
alleged consent of such female thereto, shall be any defence
to an indictment or prosecution for such offence."

This is but amending the present law relating to extra-
marital sexual intercourse with idiots, etc. As to the
further allegation that sterilized females would "spread
venereal diseases," there is no fact to support this. If
there be any such facts, why have they not been brought
forward? Why? Because no such evidence exists.

A fourth says: "We cannot rate this likelihood [of
begetting degenerate children by degenerates] so high as
to justify the adoption of extreme measures with the view
to prevent reproduction by such persons." "In many
cases they are curable." I have elsewhere given my
definition of what constitutes a " degenerate." If "many"
feeble-minded are "curable," is there any honest person
who will advise his son or daughter to marry one of these
feeble-minded ? And if so, will he or they guarantee that
the offspring of such debased and disgusting union will be
healthy and free from mental blemish ? Also, my proposal
is termed " an extreme measure." Is it as extreme as
lifelong imprisonment? Is it as extreme, or inhuman, as
cursing innocent children with some mental defect which
will deny them the right of being healthy or useful citizens ?
This critic further alleges that sterilization " would be very
costly" ; and, further, that these operated-upon degenerates
must be "permanently under care," and that it "would
be extremely difficult to obtain sanction " to operate. No
sanction is now required to sterilize women by removing
either their healthy or diseased ovaries, or their fallopian
tubes or uteri. And no sanction is now required for
performing my operation upon any sane person with a bad
family history, if he so consent in writing; nor upon the
young degenerate, provided the operation be performed
with the consent of the parents or guardians. As to the
cost of sterilizing, this would amount to but a small sum
when compared with the benefits following the operation.
As to being "permanently under care" (lifelong imprison-
ment), I contend that many sterilized degenerates would
not require detention. If, for instance, the large number

PROPOSED STERILIZATION. l6l

of sexual perverts were sterilized, and then told that they
must go out of the prisons and work, good results would
follow and the prison expenditure would be lessened. If
all the feeble-minded pregnant women were sterilized,
they need not be detained, the poor-rate being lessened.
If degenerates be sterilized, fewer schools for the so-termed
" backward" and " defective " children would be required,
with a lessening of the Education rate. If the Christian
Church could preach the higher ideal — that it is more
wicked to curse a child and blight its life with idiocy, etc.,
than that it is now considered right to discharge from an
asylum a person "not recovered," or a harmless lunatic
not having either suicidal or homicidal tendencies — a great
saving would be effected, and these " recovered" and " not
recovered " lunatics not be permanently detained, if
sterilized.

A fifth has said: "It has been proposed to effect (the
non-reproduction of degenerates) by sterilizing such people
by surgical operations. There are grave practical diffi-
culties in the way of carrying out such a scheme." What
are the difficulties that cannot be overcome ? Difficulties
are the tonics given to us to stimulate higher and better
efforts.

I have heard it stated by a man, that he has seen some
intellectually fine children who had degenerate fathers,
and for this reason he would not agree to sterilize such
parents. But I would suggest that the number of such
children is infinitesimal when compared with the total
intellectual. And, further, is the intellectuality of such
children not due far more to the mother's mental and
physical strength ? Moreover, a nation can do well
without depending upon the genius who is the product
■of a degenerate, no matter how passingly brilliant.

Fortunately, on the other hand, others have taken a
more practical view of my proposal. Thus, one replies to
me —

"Dear Dr. Rentoul, — I am with you wholly with
respect to your proposal ; nothing short of such radical
means can stem the tide of increasing degeneracy. ... ."

A second asylam physician strongly recommends steriliza-

i62 RACE culture; or, race suicide?

tion. He says — " I see so many feeble-minded women
come up with their feeble-minded children, that I think it
would be very much better if they never had children."
A third asylum physician says — " It (sterilization) would
be very desirable in many respects, but it is a very difficult
question." k. fourth asylum physician says — "Nothing-
less than sterilization, in the absence of permanent con-
trol, is required." h. fifth asylum physician says — "No
doubt the rational and humane course for imbecile and
hopeless cases would be sterilization — I say, humane";
and he advocates its application, to begin with, to cases
where the parents consent. A sixth '■ asylum physician
writes — "Your method of dealing with the unfit appears
to me very sensible."

Last year a Bill was introduced into the Commons
proposing to make the boarding-out of "harmless" (?)
insane legal. Such a system is in force in Scotland, but
I understand that only those who advocated such a plan
are in favour of it. Nothing but evil can result by the
boarding-out among the poor and farming class of idiots
and lunatics, even should these be "harmless." How
can these • be harmless ? Will their influence over other
children be for good or evil ? If we are so foolish as to
adopt such retrograde proposals, surely we must first
surgically sterilize these poor wrecks, else we shall
establish a few more manufactories for degenerates, and
of the lowest order.

The Operation of Sterilization. — The patient would b&
kept quiet for one to three days, be well bathed, and the
region of the operation constantly fomented with some
antiseptic solution for twenty-four hours, so as to thor-
oughly clean this part. It would also be well cleansed with
soap and water immediately before operation. Either a
general or local anaesthetic would be used, so that the
patient would not suff'er any pain. An incision over the
spermatic cord would disclose the vas deferens. This
would be isolated from the other contents of the cord,
two directors inserted below the upper and lower parts of
the vas, ligatures applied at either end, and a portion of
the vas excised (vasectomy). If it be thought that the
testicle might drop lower owing to non-support of the vas^

PROPOSED STERILIZATION. 163

the cut ends of the latter might be brought together by
sutures. If the spermatic cord be ligatured and excised
(spermectomy), it might be well not to include the artery
of the vas, or the cremasteric artery within the ligatures,
thus giving some blood-supply to the testes.

As regard* the fallopian tubes, these could be operated,
upon either per vaginam or by abdominal incision (fallec-
tomy), preferably the latter. This operation would not be
effective in cutting off the blood-supply from the ovaries,
as the ovarian and uterine arteries do not run along the
fallopian tubes. .As regards any danger to the patient.
Dr. Hawkins-Ambler, gynecologist to a Liverpool hos-
pital, writes me — "Sterilization of women can be done
by a vaginal operation usually— that is, by removal of a
portion of the fallopian tubes and ligature. Such an
operation would offer the most nominal risk to life, the
subsequent results, as regards hernia, would be harmless,
and no material physical disability need be feared."

CHAPTER XXI.

HAS MY PROPOSAL TO STERILIZE CERTAIN DETERIORANTS
AND DEGENERATES SECURED SUPPORT?

At a meeting of the Medico-Legal Society, London, where
I gave an address (December 1904) upon my proposal to
sterilize certain mental and physical degenerates, Sir John
McDougall, Chairman of the Asylum Committee, London
County Council, said — "One day we shall come to the
conclusion that some physical means should be employe4
to prevent the unfit from producing children."

At a meeting of the London Sociological Society, May
1904, Mr. Wells, author of Man in his Making, when
criticizing Mr. F. Galton's address on " Eugenics," said —
" It is in the sterilization of failures, and not in the selec-
tion of successes for breeding, that the possibility of an
improvement of the human stock lies." (See Proceedings
of the Sociological Society.)

At a meeting of the Medico-Legal Society, June 1904,
Earl Russell said — "Not many doctors are found to say
publicly the things which Doctor Rentoul has said, but I
think it admits of little doubt that if the ruling classes in
this country, in Parliament, and in the law, were composed
entirely of people of adequate medical knowledge, some
such remedies as those suggested would soon become part
of the law of the land. . . ."

Dr. F. J. Smith, Physician, London Hospital, and
Medical Referee to the Home Office, in the British
Medical Journal of September 24th, 1904, suggested that
when a woman becomes insane, either during pregnancy,
confinement, or suckling, and kills her child, she should
be sterilized. Also, that when insanity is caused by drugs
or alcohol, and when the insane person commits a murder,
such person should be sterilized. But why wait until the
murder has been committed ? I have elsewhere stated
that during 1904, in England and Ireland, 853 mothers,
whose insanity was due to pregnancy, confinement, or
suckling, were imprisoned in the asylums. Why should

164

HAS MY PROPOSAL SECURED SUPPORT? l6s

those be permitted to become again pregnant, and why-
should the sane husband escape punishment for gross
cruelty to children ?

Dr. Barnardo, on December 8th, 1904, wrote me as
follows: — "I may be able, through some other channel,
later on, to express the convictions which my work here
among children, many of whom are seriously deranged,
has enabled me to form. Some step will have to be taken
in the near future, if we are to protect the nation at large
from large additions of the most enfeebled, vicious, and
degenerate type. I am sure, however, that no one remedy
will suffice to meet all those cases, but that probably a
union of various measures, to be legalized by Act of Par-
liament, and therefore to be carried through with the
greatest care and under the deepest sense of responsibility,
will be necessary. Sterilization may do for the few; en-
forced segregration will probably be necessary for the
many, and there are yet other measures which I need not
set forth." Barnardo's experience of degenerate children
was vast.

Dr. F. H. Craddock, Medical Superintendent of the
Gloucester County Asylums, in his Annual Report to his
Committee of Visitors, December 1904, says — " On
December 13th last, it was my large privilege to attend
a meeting of the Medico-Legal Society in London, and to
listen to a deeply instructive address by a well-known
Liverpool physician, in which he strongly urged the
sterilization of all degenerates, including not only those
certifiably insane, but habitual criminals, confirmed epilep-
tics, and several other classes of undesirables, who were
included under the general heading of 'degenerates.'
The importance and urgency of the question was evidenced
by the audience, which included representatives of the
Home Office, the London County Council, as well as
various prison and asylum officials. . . . May I add that
the sooner this day [referring to Sir J. McDougall's
remarks] arrives, the better for the welfare of the nation.
To the heroic remedy proposed above, I confess I see but
one alternative — lifelong segregration of such degenerates.
... It is hardly likely, I fear, that public opinion is
sufficiently advanced to allow Dr. Rentoul's remedy to be

l66 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

carried into effect yet, though it is abundantly clear that
nothing will have any permanent effect in the desired
direction but a measure (whatever it may be) which will
render the reproduction of their species by the insane a
physical impossibility." (See Annual Report.)

Dr. W. Bevan Lewis, of the West Riding Asylum,
Wakefield, Yorkshire, writes: —

"Dear Dr. Rentoul, — I am with you wholly with
respect to your proposal; nothing short of such radical
means can stem the tide of increasing degeneracy. The
public conscience sadly wants awakening to the immeasur-
able mischief accruing from existing conditions with
regard to the insane, the epileptic, the feeble-minded,
imbecile, and idiot community. Notwithstanding this, I
am confronted with many practical difficulties which appear
to me to stand in the way of legislative reform. The
prohibition of marriage alone seems a puerile measure,
and would be quite fruitless of good results. Even now,
should the operation you propose be adopted, I fear that
it would be largely avoided, and that the upper classes
would escape at the expense of the lower. It would be
very hurtful if any class immunity should be thus estab-
lished, for the procedure should have equal incidence upon
all alike. Again, if marriage sought is to be the condition
upon which the Committee of Inquiry acts, I fear there
would still be much illicit sexual intercourse which the
measure would fail to reach. No doubt the whole pro-
cedure would have to be- very elaborately considered, but
you see that in spirit, at least, I am quite with you. If you
mean to restrict the operation simply to the certified class
already officially recognized, of course there could be no
difficulties in the way, and much good would accrue by
thus excluding the large number of discharges from our
asylums from the possibility of begetting their kind. It is
a misuse of words to oppose your procedure on the ground
of its interfering with the liberty of the subject ; it is not
consistent liberty, but licence that we are attacking.
' ' With kind regards, believe me,

" Yours faithfully,

" November 20lh, i^as" " W. BeVAN Lewis.

HAS MY PROPOSAL SECURED SUPPORT? 167

Mr. Hamilton Cassels, K.C., President of the Prisoners'
Aid Association, and Superintendent for the past twenty-
five years of the Central Prison Sunday School, Toronto,
writes me: —

"My dear Sir,— From the little that I know of the
subject of sterilization I have been able to make up my
own mind that what you propose is wise; but it will, I
fear, need a good deal of pushing before the general public
will be found willing to endorse the method."

Dr. J. T. Gilmour, Warden of the Central Prison of
Ontario, says:-T-

"Dear Dr. Rentoul, — I have had the privilege of
reading a copy Of the paper written by you for the
meeting of the British Medical Association in this city
next month. I cordially concur in all you say. . . .
Please pardon this intrusion, my only excuse being that
I am anxious to have the light spread."

Dr. Lydson, in his work. Diseases of Society (Chicago,
1904, p. 564), says — "Sterilization, in both male and
female, has a wide range of application in the prevention
of social disease. As already indicated, individuals whose
physical and normal status is such as to ensure the unfit-
ness of their prospective progeny should be given the
alternative of submitting to sterilization as the only con-
dition upon which matrimony is legally permissible. Per-
sons with a history of insanity, epileptics, dipsomaniacs,
incurable syphilitics, certain persons who suffer from
deformity or chronic diseases, criminals and persons with
criminal records, should not be permitted to marry upon
any conditions. Incurable criminals, epileptics, and the
insane should invariably be submitted to this operation,
and irrespective of matrimony. Even the rare cases of
reformed habitual criminals should be subjected to this
operation, for the cure of their own criminal tendencies
will not interfere with the transmission of these tendencies
to their progeny."

The State Legislature of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in 1905
passed a Bill to legalize sterilization, but the Governor,

l68 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

wishing some slight alteration, did not have the Bill
returned to him in time to sign it.
The Bill is as follows: —

"Whereas: Heredity plays a most important part in
the transmission of idiocy and imbecility ;

" Therefore be it enacted by the 'Senate and House of
Representatives of the State of Pennsylvania that on the
first day of July after the passage of this Bill, it shall be
compulsory for each and every institution in the State
entrusted with the care of idiots and imbecile children to
appoint upon its staff at least one skilled neurologist and
one skilled surgeon of recognized ability, whose duty it
shall be, in conjunction with the chief physician of the
institution, to examine the mental and physical condition
of the inmates.

' ' If, in the judgment of this committee of experts and
the board of societies, procreation is inadvisable and there
is no probability of improvement of the mental condition
of the inmate, it shall be lawful for the surgeon to "perform
such operation for the prevention of propreation as shall
be decided safest and most effective, but this operation
shall not be performed except in cases that have been pro-
nounced non-improvable."

Barr, Chief Physician to the Pennsylvania Training
School for Feeble-minded', Elwyn, in his work Mental
Defectives (1904, p. 190), says — "Let asexualization be
once legalized, not as a penalty for crime, but as a
remedial measure preventing crime and tending to the
future comfort and happiness of the defective ; let the
practice once become common for young children im-
mediately upon being adjudged defective by competent
authorities, properly appointed, and the public mind will
accept it as a matter of course in dealing with defectives,
and as an effective means of race preservation it will come
to be regarded, just as is quarantine, simple protection
against ill."

I would just add that, in all the reviews of my book, in
all the letters, and in all the conversations I have had with
sociologists, medical and non-medical, and especially in
conversations with working-men — not to mention the

HAS MY PROPOSAL SECURED SUPPORT? 169

statements made by witnesses before the Royal Commis-
sion — I have been more than pleased to find them in favour
of my proposal.

On August 30th, igo6, the Lancashire Asylums Board,
on the motion of Mr. H. Jackson, seconded by Alderman
Grime, unanimously resolved: — "That, in view of the
alarming increase of the insane portion of our population,
immediate steps be taken to inquire into the best means
for preventing the propagation of those mentally afflicted,
with the view of securing legislation which would attain
this end." A committee was appointed composed of Mr.
H. Jackson, Drs. Rhodes, Sephton, and Trimble, Alder-
man Grime, and the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the
various Visiting Asylum Committees. (See also pp. 161
to 163.)

Even the more extreme critics of my proposal only say
that it "must not be accepted until all other plans have
failed." It is therefore seen that they have no objection
to the operation itself. And "other plans" have failed
lamentably.

CHAPTER XXII.

PROPOSALS MADE BY OTHERS WITH THE VIEW OF LESSENING
THE NUMBER OF DEGENERATES.

(a) Forced Abbrtion in Pregnant Insane Women. — It is
well known that the law does not recognize surgical
abortion, and that the Roman Catholic Church has steadily
refused to give its sanction to any such operation, rightly
contending that there is no human right to kill an innocent
child for the purpose of saving a mother's life. Their
action has largely led to the giving up of abortion, and
instead, opening the uterus of the woman, removing the
child, and removing the ovaries, so that she cannot again
conceive — i.e., sterilizing her.

I regret to find that Clouston, in his work Mental
Diseases (6th ed., p. 578), when writing about insanity
occurring in pregnant women, says — " I think that abor-
tion should be resorted to if marked insanity comes on
in the early stage of pregnancy. It can now be almost
safely carried out. In the later months, too, premature
labour should be induced. Of course, such measures
should be resorted to after consultation, and with the
"written consent of the husband or nearest relatives." This
is a policy of murder, and unjustifiable murder. (Hang-
ing.) The murder is to be done when the child is inside
the womb : and upon an innocent child.

The only law to guide a medical man who is — unfor-
tunately very often — requested to adopt criminal measures
in pregnant women, or in any proposal to shorten life, is
to adhere, with an iron grip of tenacity, to the advice
given by that Nestor of the medical world. Sir James
Paget — " Keep everything alive, keep everything alive."
The murder of degenerates either when inside or outside
the uterus is a dangerous and repulsive proposal. Every
human being has the alienable right to live. The law,
" Thou shalt do no murder," is still in operation — at least, .
in the ideal and in theory. Nor will a reversal to the

170

TO LESSEN THE NUMBER OF DEGENERATES. I/I

laws of Sparta, or to the savage, help us. It would be a
terrible national danger if we were to make the murder of
infants in the womb a Christian custom. The step from
killing the child in the womb to murdering a person when
outside the womb is a dangerously narrow one. If it
were adopted for the prevention of insanity, it would be
applied to the prevention of the birth of children physically
diseased by syphilis or tuberculosis; in fact, Lydson, in
his work TJie Diseases of Society, says — "Whether the
children of known syphilitic parents should be allowed to
come into the world is an open question " (p. 370). But
if we are foolish enough to agree to a policy of intra-
uterine murder, we must in all fairness give the child a
fair trial with judge and jury; tryirig the poor child for a
crime it is unconscious and not guilty of, had no part in —
the crime of being conceived in its mother's womb. A
medical "hangman" must also be appointed. Such a
power of producing abortion must never be placed in the
hands of " even two doctors," and with the " consent of
the relatives " ; else every Dick, Tom, and Harry will
begin to "lessen the number of potential degenerates,"
and when no one can give proof, worthy of the name, that
the child will be mentally deranged. Moreover, if women
knew of this proposal, they would be "'cute" enough to
simulate insanity, and hysteria, and then claim abortion^
"for the good of the coming race." At present, some
women say they "will commit suicide rather than have
another child " ; while not a few go to the hospitals com-
"plaining of " uterine trouble," but really pregnant, know-
ing that the sound will be introduced, by students and
others, into their wombs, and abortion brought on. It
will be noticed that Dr. Clouston's advice has r\o permanent
value, because the insane woman could conceive again and
again. It fails absolutely to meet the conditions, for if
to-morrow we adopted his advice and failed to deal with
the causes of degeneracy, no good would follow. More-
over, it fails to meet the case where the man is the insane
person, and when the child suffers through his fault.
During 1903 there were 853 mothers in the asylums of
England and Ireland whose insanity was said to be due
to pregnancy, childbirth, or suckling. It is probable that

172 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

a large number of these did not show insane symptoms
until after confinement.

(b) Mechanical Checks to Impregnation. — One might
suppose that it was a " high-grade degenerate " (this is the
present titular jargon) who made this suggestion to me ;
but is it likely that idiots, imbeciles, epileptics, feeble-
minded, lunatics, habitual inebriates, habitual criminals,
habitual vagabonds, and other "borderland" cases would
adopt this proposal, even if the Lunacy Commissioners
drafted some Ten Commandments for their guidance, and
supplied unlimited checks — at the national expense?
Besides, the mental degenerate usually thinks that he is the
sane person, and that it is " the other fellow " who should
use these measures ; he being the best stock to breed the
genius from ! To-day, unfortunately, it is the non-de-
generate individuals — those who are physically, mentally,
and financially best qualified to beget healthy oifspring who
adopt the gospel of mechanical checks. I understand that,
although a leader of the so-called Malthusian League
instructs his underlings to send filthy pamphlets to every
respectable mother who has the high honour of being
named in the daily press as one who has done her national
duty, this leader has not yet thought of supplying the
weak-minded with his prurient and erotic literature — it is
only sent to the "fit" and to those who can guarantee the
quality of the future nation. Why does not Parliament
interfere?

(c) Lifelong Imprisonment. — This is a mere placebo.
It is the cry of the humanitarian — or perhaps more correctly,
the pseudo-humanitarian — " Put him or her into an asylum ;
there they will neither harm themselves nor any other
person." This is not accurate. The degenerates harm
themselves, the doctors, and the nurses. If they have a
homicidal mania, they may seriously injure or kill another
degenerate, a doctor, or a nurse. Again, the effect of
coming in contact with these poor people is most depressing
to others, and it is a " living death " to the inmate. The
smug hypocrisy which says that lifelong* imprisonment is
the only thing must be shown up. It will not do to tell
society that when it has cast every insane person into an
asylum, and every person deemed likely to beget idiots,

TO LESSEN THE NUMBER OF DEGENERATES. 173

etc., that it has done its duty. The agony of those poor
demented offspring of society's misdeeds, the cry of those
children may be stifled by imprisonment, correction, and
bromides, and thus the public ear may be left unharrowed;
but their quack panacea of lifelong imprisonment will not
satisfy honest men and women. Our entire motive in our
treatment of degenerates must be based upon this^ these
are a people who are suffering largely because of the
misdeeds of others ; they must not be punished in any way,
but be given the greatest liberty in life consistent with
rendering them least dangerous to society. If any one is
to be punished with imprisonment it is not they, but those
who procreated such.i

Again, the expense connected with lifelong imprison-
ment would be more than the already over-taxed taxpayers
can stand. Over-taxation is of prime importance when
considering the influences at work in causing physical
deterioration and the limitation of population.

A reference to the Table in Chap. IV. shows that over
;^i3,ooo,ooo was spent upon the upkeep of degenerates
in the United Kingdom during twelve months. That is
about half the sum expended upon our Army, about ten
times as much as is spent upon our Volunteers, and almost
as much as is expended in carrying out the vast system of
elementary and secondary education in this country. Is
this gigantic expenditure to go on ? Are we to spend
more upon the upkeep of the unfit and parasitic portion
of our population than upon the fit ?

(d) a Policy of Non-interference with Suicides. — The
question, Should we jirevent degenerates from performing
suicide, or should we adopt a policy of non-interference ?
has often been discussed. To encourage them to commit
suicide is a different question. If it were not for suicide
our country would be almost uninhabitable. No one case
of suicide takes place without telling us that some one,
probably a begettor, has broken some law of health.
That the suicide rate is high no one can dispute, especially
if we include the many deaths from so-called " accident,"
"misadventure," and "unknown causes." I have put
forward the theory that the person who performs suicide

^ Unfortunately, during 1905 only 9,450 of the certified insane died.

174 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

does so during a " lucid interval," during a passing phase
of insanity; that they then recognize the utter hopelessness
of their lives ; and not only so, but when recognizing this
utter hopelessness and the dread of stamping out their de-
generacy, they often kill their offspring at the same time.
"A marked peculiarity of suicides in recent times is the con-
junction of suicide with murder" [editor. Judicial Statistics).
The yearly average for five years of patients admitted to
asylums in England was 20,734, ^""^ the yearly average of
these having suicidal desire was 4,872, or 23.5 of the total.
This yearly average would be much higher but for the
fact that a great many perform suicide before they might
have been admitted to asylums. Supposing all persons
ceased to perform suicide, what an immense number of
lunacy cases would be in our midst. In England, during
1902, the total number of suicides was 3,411, according to
the verdicts of coroners' juries, while 2,198 attempted
suicide. According to the Registrar-General's Return
there were also 6,205 deaths from "poison," "suffoca-
tion," "drowning," and "not certified," and 6,205 where
the cause of death was not certified by either physicians
or coroners. In Scotland, during 1903, there were 274
cases of suicide "recorded," while in Ireland 144 were
" registered," with 123 of attempted suicide. If, therefore,
we include suicide, attempted suicide, those with suicidal
intent, and 2,500 under the headings — Death from Poison,
Suffocation, Accident, Drowning, and Not Certified, we
have at least 13,000 during twelve months alone. The
suicidal rate is increasing in almost all European countries,
and especially among the educated — being highest, I
understand, among medical practitioners. These facts,
therefore, bring to the forefront the question — Are we
justified in adopting a policy of non-interference with those
who wish to perform suicide ?

The term "suicide" is not mentioned in the Bible, but the
Council of Aries, in 452 A.D., condemned the act of suicide
as a religious sin. This clerical anathema did not check
either suicide or felo de se, and so a further step of con-
fiscating the goods and lands of these persons was adopted.
This failing, the next step was that the widow and children
were robbed of their dower. This failing, the suicide's

TO LESSEN THE NUMBER OF DEGENERATES. 175

will was made void ; and, finally, he was denied Christian
burial, and was "interred" at the cross-roads in the
public street, a stake being driven through the body.i
About 1700 A.D. the word "suicide" was introduced,
coupled with the words "whilst temporarily insane,"^
chiefly with the view of robbing the law — not justice — of
its degrading and unchristian action in condemning those
who shortened somewhat their lives on this earth ; and,
later, the felo de se could be buried in any burial-ground,
while his widow could not be deprived of her husband's
life assurance money. It is somewhat quixotic for the
law to say that a person can be "guilty" of any act,
including suicide, if he or she performed the act while
insane, because it is held that the insane are not respon-
sible. The law partly acknowledges this when it says
that an " attempt" to commit suicide is not an attempt to-
commit murder, this being only a common law mis-
demeanour. Further, the law provides that a person, to>
be charged with attempt to commit suicide or felo de se,
must die within one year and one day after the attempt !

Sir Thomas More, in his Utopia, when describing his.
ideal republic, represents the magistrates and priests as
encouraging all afflicted with incurable diseases to commit
suicide.

Taking the above facts into consideration, we must, if
honest, ask ourselves — Are we justified in endeavouring to
prevent certain degenerates from putting an end to their
lives, or shall we make them undergo still further hellish
torture and make them live — force them to live until
disease, pain, and age kills them ? Some time ago I was-
accused of encouraging suicide ! I have not done so. I
have asked the above question with the view of stimulating-
thought. Because something called "the law" provides,
that suicide is illegal, this is no reason why we should
all humiliate our greatest gift from God — our mind and
intellect, by bowing down to a condition of things which
I and other honest thinkeirs deem worthy of discussion.
My aim is to gravely question the right or wrong of our
present ideas upon this grave subject, because there is no
doubt but that the thinking portion of the community —
' Law abolished in 1824. '^ A " pious perjury " : Blackstone.

1/6 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

that is, the best minds — is busy with it. One can honestly
ask — What good purpose is obtained by nursing back to
life ■ the "attempted" suicide who has made previous
attempts and who is certain to make other attempts ? Is
the nation benefited? Is the poor sufferer benefited?
Personally, my feelings have revolted against my conduct
when I have been called upon to keep alive for some days
a poor woman who had attempted suicide with a cor-
roding poison, and whose physical suffering was so hellish
that I had to smother her pain by injections of morphia.
And all for what ? That the police might bring her' before
a magistrate and her condition be advertised before a
morbid public — the " groundlings," whose depraved taste
is tickled by the cry of the newspaper boy — " Horrible
case of attempted suicide by a young lady ! " Ugh !

Of 146 cases of attempted suicide during 1902 in
England and Wales 63 had been previously convicted
by a court, and of this latter number 23 had been con-
victed of one previous attempt, 10 of two, 9 of three, 3 of
four, 2 of five, 7 of six to ten times, and 2 of eleven to
twenty previous attempts.

Take the case of a person who murders some one,
and who has attempted to kill himself. Here, again, we
surround the attempted suicide with doctors and nurses,
giving him perhaps oxygen inhalations and saline injec-
tions. And all for what ? That he may be brought up at
the assizes, and be sentenced to be hanged or imprisoned
for life — a worse form of torture than ever devised by
savages. Na doubt a policeman may secure promotion
for his conduct of such a case ; but does the prisoner or the
policeman here demand the chief consideration ? Take,
again, the man (or woman) who knows that he is guilty.
He knows perfectly well that he is guilty. He (or she)
tries himself and pronounces the verdict — not waiting for
that of the judge and jury — and carries out the sentence..
Can any one honestly blame such action ? The person says
that the State has a right to murder him or take his life.
He simply says — "Thanks; I shall not put you to the
trouble: I shall do it myself." He fully recognizes that
the State has the right to kill him, and so, legal murdering,
or what we term "capital" punishment, being in vogue.

TO LESSEN TJIE NUMBER OF DEGENERATES. 1 77

he prefers to relieve the State of this act, to cheat the
hangman out of a fee, and to rob the morbid penny-a-
liner of some description about a "dull, chill morning,"
"a dismal tolling of the prison bell," and "the awful
black flag." Take, again, the case of a person who, in a
lucid interval, finds that he has begotten children who
must inherit the insanity, or parental disease. He kills his
children and himself, so ridding himself and his children,
and perhaps his children's children, of much suffering, and
this world of their presence. The law calls this murder
and suicide. Well, so it is; but would it not be much
better if the law and people generally concerned themselves
just a little more with those conditions which produced these.
murders and these suicides? Take, again, the person who
has been told by his physician that he (or she) has cancer
or some incurable disease — a disease which must, day by
•day, night after night, and hour by hour sap the strength
until kind death comes. This patient prefers to shorten his
stay in this world by a few weeks or months — to him a sad
and suffering world — and so ends his life. Who blames
him? Does a morbid public demand its " pound of flesh,"
and is his physician to administer to him heavier and heavier
■doses of narcotic poisons, that, when at last relief comes,
the physician has some difficulty in deciding as to whether
the drug or the disease has killed the vivisected sufferer ?

I have before stated that a person cannot be tried for
attempted suicide if such person has not died within one
year and one day of the attempt. This may be law, but it
is not common-sense: because the person may die in
eighteen months' time after the attempt. An Italian
proverb says: " Few of us die: we kill ourselves." Yet,
although medical men see persons slowly committing
suicide — taking more than a year and a day — by drinking
alcohol, chloral, opium, morphia, by eating too much, or
by leading dissolute lives, we are such blind worshippers
of this "year and a day " legal quibble, that it is contended
that such persons die "a natural death." But do these per-
sons not deliberately purchase these drugs? Yet, although
they kill themselves, they are not, forsooth, suicides!
It is this way: a person takes a large dose of poison, and
dies thereby in a. few hours or days. He is "a suicicJe!"

1/8 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

Another person takes the very same drug, but in small
doses, and gradually kills himself. He is not a suicide,
according to the customary style; yet he has taken the
poison, and he has died therefrom. That does not matter I
The great fetish Idol— the "year and one day" conundrum
must not be destroyed : no matter if vital statistics be made
a laughing stock. I have stated the above cases so that
honest men and women may think them over before donning
"the judicial cap" — a form of entertainment by the illiterate
which, in all charity, makes one think that free education
has not yet sunk in so deeply as to allow these self-appointed
judges to discriminate the cap which is adopted by the fool
from that worn by the thoughtful.

Suggestion. — That when a medical practitioner or other
person has been called in, or knows of a person having
made an attempt to commit suicide, such medical prac-
titioner or other person shall forthwith notify the fact,
along with any other facts required, to the Lunacy Com-
missioners in that division of the United Kingdom in
which the attempt has been made.

(e) The Murder of Degenerates. — ^This proposal is as old
as the story of the murder of Abel by his brother Cain.
The proposal has appeared from time to time and from
the earliest records. Some allege that Lycurgus, one of
the idealistic Kings of Sparta, introduced the custom of
murdering infants ; but this is not so, as it is held that
he refused the request of his brother's widow to murder
her infant. In ancient Sparta, we are supposed to believe,
every child — as it was contended that every child was
the property of the State — was under public inspection,
and if weak or deformed, was exposed and allowed to
perish. Surely no person to-day wishes to adopt such
Spartan law. Yet this year we are told that in the State
legislature of Ohio, U.S.A., a Bill has been introduced to
empower physicians to murder certain persons suffering
from incurable disease. It is contended by the advocates
of this proposal that it is a most humane proposal ! They
say, Take the case of a person who is suffering excruci-
ating pain — pain which cannot be even annulled by
soporifics. yVhy not give such intense sufferer the right
to be killed? Even were such a crazy idea adopted, it

TO LESSEN THE NUMBER OF DEGENERATES. 179

all the police, all humanitarian movements, and all the
Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to keep
mankind from adopting homicidal measures. It is to be
hoped that even the legal murdering of persons judicially-
sentenced to death will soon be repealed ; for it is quixotic
to contend that we really punish a criminal by so dealing
with him or her that they being dead can still be
punished !

If Clouston's proposal to murder the human being when
in the womb be adopted, it follows that their murder when
outside the womb is equally justifiable. After I published
my monograph on the Proposed Sterilization of Certain
Degenerates, I was not a little pained by receiving a large
number of letters recommending the murder of degene-
rates — young and old ; a proposal which gives one the idea
that there are still in England a large number of savages
whom neither civilization nor Christianity have influenced.
These seem to fail to recognize the fact that the killing ofF
of a few hundreds of lunatics, idiots, etc., would not tend
to effect a cure. Dr. F. J. Smith has advocated the lethal
chamber for those found guilty of murder, instead of
hanging; while Helen Mathers, in her last powerful novel.
The Ferryman, makes one of her characters advocate the
doctrine of "euthanasia" for those suffering from in-
curable physical diseases.

Lecky (History of Morals in Europe^ states that in
ancient Greece one altar, standing prominently and alone,
was more honoured than all others. It was dedicated to
" Pity." It is not too much to say that Pity is the most
exquisite feature in human nature, and it would be an
immeasurable loss if anything were done, either by our
Legislature or by Society, to chill its warming influences.
A policy of murder is a policy of despair, and therefore
those who adopt it are the ignorant and conceited, who
fancy that all progress has reached finality simply because
they cannot live in the great Hope for less disease, for
less suffering, and for more preventive medicine. The
present suffering must be the whetstone which gives the
keen edge to our efforts in attempting to solve the mystery
of pain.

To suggest that a doctor who fails to cure a patient,

13

l8o RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

and whose- mixture of ignorance and conceit impels him
to label the disease "incurable," is to advocate that the
physician is to become a butcher, and one who will
obligingly^and perhaps for a consideration — give the
coup de grace to young and old " incurables."

Lately, Bills have been introduced in the Legislative
Chamber of Iowa to legalize the murder of idiots, the
deformed, and those suffering from incurable disease or
injury. If such Bills become law, they will reflect in-
delible discredit on American civilization.

(f) Castration. — By castration is meant the entire removal
of both testes or ovaries. I am opposed to castration,
a less radical procedure giving better results. In Mo-
hammedan countries the Koran forbids castration, even
although eunuchs are employed by the Mohammedans.
Dr. Clemow, Physician to the British Embassy at Con-
stantinople, kindly informs me that the eunuchs employed
at the Sultan's court and elsewhere are children of
Soudan and Abyssinian Christian parents. He says that
the operation is performed by quite unskilled persons, and
that the entire sexual organs^ — penis, testes, and scrotum
— are removed. This statement upsets the prurient gossip
to the effect that eunuchs are used in the harems for semi-
sexual purposes. Those operated upon remain strong and
have the outward characters of the male. Sheik Abdullah
Quillam (Liverpool) also informs me that not so many
eunuchs are now employed at the Sultan's court. In the
Old Testament repeated mention is made of eunuchs who
attained high social, military, and diplomatic positions —
these facts brushing aside the crazy gossip of the erotic
to the effect that removal of the testes causes either
mental or physical decay. In the New Testament, Christ
refers to these eunuchs — those born so, those made so
by man, and those operated upon for the Kingdom of
Heaven's sake. He did not object to this operation.
Many religious persons — St. Origen and others — were
castrated. The Skoptzies, a religious body of Russia,
castrate as a religious rite ; while the Bushmen in
Australia make a permanent opening on the under-surface
of the penis, far back, and with the view of causing the
fertilizing fluid to escape through this opening, thus

TO LESSEN THE NUMBER OF DEGENERATES. l8l

preventing- impregnation. Some clergy have written to
me stating that Christ did not refer to actual castration,
but only to a celibate life by His followers. This is very
unlikely, when we bear in mind the then custom in the
East; because the celibate life was not enjoined for many
years after the year i a.d.

Referring to animals, we know that many animals
are castrated yearly in this country — many thousands of
horses, cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, cats, etc. ; even the
domestic cock has his testes removed and so converted
into the capon. It will be noted that we castrate animals
so as to improve their growth and so that they may excel
from a food or nutritive point. I mention this because
some allege that castration weakens an animal. They
argue that the stallion and bull, for instance, attain their
great development because they have testes! but they
seem to forget the influence of heredity and surroundings.
The sires of the stallion and bull are very carefully selected
by man : the best foals are kept, while those not so good
are castrated ; the sires are well fed and not worked hard,
they are better cared for, while their sexual life is restricted.
If these methods were adopted with castrated horses and
bulls, they would attain the same height, weight, and
strength. But even if castration be postponed until the
stallion or bull have arrived at maturity, we do not contend
that they will suffer, as all their male points, or secondary
sexual characters, will appear.

Surely there is no so devout worshipper of Priapus as
will contend that everything good in man and in woman —
moral, mental and physical — is due only to their testes
and ovaries. Yet we are pestered with such contention.
I shall never accept this base suggestion, that the brain
and mind of man, the heart and higher actions of man, or
even his physical attributes, have sprung from, or are
dependent upon his testes. Did one accept so gross a
th'eory, it would be an insult to the Creator and would
constitute Him the Chief Priest of Phallic worship. I
have shown that a man or woman is as healthy, mentally
and physically, without these glands as with them, and
that even in animals castrated the only difference is a
little less height, a little less brilliant plumage, and a lesser

l82 RACE CULTURE; OR, RACE SUICIDE?

development of what we term the secondary, not ;the
primary, sexual characteristics. Fortunately, I have
never met any one who has suggested that all that is
best in the woman — mental, physical, and moral — is due
to her ovaries. One can have only pity for those who
look upon everything and consider every question through
glasses strongly tinted in sexual colours ; yet, in reality,
this is what these sexual worshippers do when building
up their erotic, neurotic, and absurd theories.

" Press on — for in the grave there is no work
And no device. Press on while yet ye may."

Printed by The Walter Scott Publishing Co.-^ Limited^ Fcllins-on-Tyne.

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